Mike Tomlin Confident in Steelers Backup Center Options

Questions continue to loom over the Steelers’ backup center options, but head coach Mike Tomlin has no qualms about the lack of options the team will have when they have to make cutdowns by 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Instead, he endorsed the number of in-house options, citing that the team is comfortable with what they have at the position.

In a question and answer with Bob Labriola of Steelers.com, Tomlin broke down the many candidates he views that the team has for the backup center job. He included four names in the discussion, with two notable names absent from the conversation.

“We’re really comfortable with the number of candidates we have,” Tomlin said. “We’ve got some guys with real NFL experience there. Nate Herbig has been a guy who’s played center at this level. Kendrick Green is a guy who has been a starting center at this level. We’ve got a couple of other guys who are center-capable. Ryan McCollum is center-capable. Spencer Anderson is center-capable, and so we’ve probably got more depth in terms of guys who are capable and also more depth with guys with experience than I can recall.”

The two notable names missing from there are James Daniels and Isaac Seumalo. Pittsburgh has two starting guards who could be center-capable, but neither has taken snaps at center throughout the offseason. So, it would appear the plan is to carry a true backup center into the season. But Tomlin does not necessarily need that player to have played in the preseason. He is comfortable not doing so. When asked how comfortable he could be if that happens, it depends on how comfortable Tomlin is from what he has seen in practice.

“If I had to, certainly. If he’s got larger experience that makes me comfortable, and I’ve seen things within the practice setting that makes me comfortable, then certainly,” Tomlin said of preseason experience at center.

Green has not done enough to earn the job. Herbig has not played enough. Meanwhile, McCollum and Anderson swapped places from game one to game two. It still feels like a spot where the team could scour the waiver market and make an acquisition at that spot.