Zach Frazier Showcases Why He Deserves to Be a Day 1 Starter
PITTSBURGH — After a poor outing by Pittsburgh Steelers center Nate Herbig in Friday night’s loss to the Houston Texans, rookie center Zach Frazier could become a starter sooner rather than later.
Herbig had two fumbled snap exchanges with quarterback Justin Fields, and was eventually benched for Frazier. From the get-go, Frazier was impressive. On his first snap, he exploded out of his stance and moved defenders.
According to Pro Football Focus, Frazier allowed zero pressures on 19 pass-blocking snaps. He also recorded a 72.2 run-blocking grade.
Fields took responsibility for the fumbled snaps with Herbig, saying he needs to make sure they’re on the same page. Mike Tomlin said poor snaps are a dual responsibility on the center and the quarterback. Regardless, Herbig wasn’t all that impressive on Friday night. Herbig is more of a guard than center. He has only played 48 snaps at center in his NFL career, and that was evident on Friday night.
In 2023, Frazier played at an extremely high level at West Virginia. In 12 starts, Frazier played 806 offensive snaps and did not allow a single sack. In their opening game against Pitt, Frazier was credited with a season-high 14 knockdowns.
Following the season, the committees named Frazier to the watchlist of many awards including being a William V. Campbell Trophy Finalist, a Wuerffel Trophy Semifinalist and a Jason Witten Man of the Year Semifinalist. Additionally, he earned All-American honors for the second time of collegiate career.
Offensive line guru Brandon Thorn saw the same traits that Frazier displayed at Morgantown in his NFL debut.
“Nice to see the strengths of Zach Frazier’s college film showing up out of the gate in Week 1 of preseason. High-end play strength + finishing skills,” Thorn wrote on X.
Nice to see the strengths of Zach Frazier's college film showing up out of the gate in Week 1 of preseason. High-end play strength + finishing skills pic.twitter.com/0XnmlM68BI
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) August 10, 2024
The Steelers rushed 25 times for 109 yards, a 4.4 yards per carry average, against Houston. Both Daijun Edwards and Jonathan Ward had runs of 20 yards or more. The run game was one of the few bright spots from a pretty dreadful night.
“The backs definitely did a good job. Had some great runs,” Frazier said. “We were just all trying to do our jobs. Get a hat on a hat. Break some runs.”
Frazier had an impressive NFL debut, but he knows that there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“I’m always pretty hard on myself,” he said. “I can always be better.”
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.