The Pittsburgh Steelers are among the few teams who can look back at their postseason run and consider the entire season a disappointment. The Steelers got better quarterback play from both passers in the offseason, got off to a 10-3 start, and still managed to get dismantled in the Wild Card Round, 28-14, by the rival Baltimore Ravens.
The end of the season and the month’s worth of losses that preceded it have made the coming offseason crucial. Pittsburgh must decide whether purgatory is suitable, or whether a rebuild is in store. It must decide where to go at quarterback and how to navigate a coaching collapse in the second half of the season.
For all of the Steelers’ troubles, though, there is still enough talent to repeatedly compete for a playoff spot and a strong enough supporting cast to be a legitimate threat if the right quarterback lands in Western Pennsylvania.
Part of that is due to some of the successes the offensive line found amidst a flurry of injuries in 2024.
Former Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger spoke about the unit in the wake of the Steelers’ season-ending defeat.
“I really do like the line that we have,” Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin’ podcast. “I think they are going through some growing pains. We’ve had injuries this year, our first-round pick got injured, so that’s a killer. But what you had from our rookie center, he’s only going to get better and that’s going to be huge in a leadership standpoint.”
Right tackle Troy Fautanu missed virtually the entire season with a knee injury but, as the quarterback noted, Frazier stepped into the spotlight as a second-round pick. After Nate Herbig’s injury, Frazier took the starting job that was eventually going to be his and left any doubt about his immediate readiness in the dust.
By season’s end, he emerged as the unit’s best healthy starter, faring particularly well in the run game and cementing his place as a long-term starter.
Roethlisberger also revealed his bold take on what’s next for the Steelers rookie.
“He is going to need to step up as a vocal leader of the team and that group because that group is the one unique unit that always rides together, they die together,” Roethlisberger said. “So you need a leader in that group and you need a guy and the center kind of sometimes is just that naturally. I think you've got guys that've played a lot this year, played well, that’s tough, that wants to be out there and I think that he just naturally needs to step up as a leader next year.”
Roethlisberger knows a thing or two about playing with a star center, having spent several years with Maurkice Pouncey. Lofting those kinds of expectations on virtually any play is ambitious – including Frazier. But the second-round center doesn’t need to be Canton-bound to be a difference-maker on an offensive line that could see several new starters in 2024.
Both for the locker room and for the lack of continuity facing Pittsburgh’s offense, Frazier making the leap as a leader could pay significant dividends as the Steelers try to break out of their self-imposed purgatory.
