After veteran offensive lineman Nate Herbig suffered a shoulder injury that placed him on the injured list and ended his season, the question arose as to who would be the Pittsburgh Steelers’ backup center after rookie Zach Frazier moved into the starting lineup.
It is widely believed that the Steelers will rely on second-year pro Spencer Anderson and rookie Mason McCormick to fill in.
However, neither of them has much experience at the center position in the NFL. In fact, McCormick only played 15 snaps as a center in his college career.
Knowing this, the Steelers let him play center quite a bit in the final week before the season finale against the Detroit Lions and then worked to get him some action. Against Detroit, McCormick played nine snaps at center, more than half of his collegiate snaps at the position.
While nine snaps isn’t much of a statement, it did at least give the South Dakota State player some work in the stadium at an unfamiliar position, one the Steelers could use him for if he gets injured during the season.
Let’s take a look at the film of McCormick’s time at center.
Throughout the preseason, McCormick has been really impressive with his hand usage and grip strength in pass protection. If he gets his hands on you, you’re not going anywhere.
Doing this after the snap of the football is a difficult task, but McCormick handled it very well on one of his first snaps at the position.
Good snap, and then look at how he controls the defensive lineman. He helps create a very clean pocket on the RPO for quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, who throws a strike to Jaray Jenkins.
Later in the same drive, there’s another read option from Plumlee. Although he pulls the ball and runs away from McCormick, check out the rookie’s leg swing to move the defensive tackle.
Snap is a little slow, but that’s to be expected as the guy is still learning the intricacies of the position.
It’s nice to see him able to get his hands in the right place so quickly, gain an advantage and drive the ball away.
Having a defender keep an eye on your snapping hand can be a difficult task at any level of football. You need to be quick and have solid technique to snap the ball and get your hands up quickly.
McCormick does a good job here, using the hop technique to hold his own against the bull rush, even after being easily brought down by guard Joey Fisher.
Snap is good here too. Right into the middle of Plumlee’s body, who catches the ball and fires it to quickly get 10 yards to Quez Watkins.
Plumlee’s 24-yard pass to Watkins, which was negated by Fisher’s ineligible man-positioning penalty, wasn’t particularly impressive, but it’s notable how relatively confident McCormick looks.
The Steelers drafted him as a center before the 2024 NFL Draft, so he at least knew that was coming. But the fact that he was pushed to that position last week due to injuries and then executed it in the game is a nice compliment to McCormick.
He’s done well, shown some power in the run game and been strong in pass defense. That can be a lot for a young center, especially one who’s learning the position on the fly, but he’s played well in those nine snaps.
Overall, it was a good performance from McCormick in his few appearances as center. Nothing really impressive, nothing worrying. Solid. That’s a really positive thing to see when you’re playing a rookie in a new position on a short week.
The Steelers now know that he can at least take over the position in an emergency. That is at least reassuring.
