The Pittsburgh Steelers 2024 NFL season has come to a close. Because the Steelers are among the 31 teams who did not finish fulfilling their ultimate goal, they are in the process of wrapping up their season and moving forward into 2025.

Since the Steelers conduct exit interviews with all their players, and the fact I have done these articles in the past, we thought we would do them yet again here at Steel Curtain Network. By outlining two players each day, we will be able to look at their season in retrospect as well as looking toward the future. Since Coach Tomlin has previously stated he starts his interviews with rookies and those heading into free agency, we will attempt to do the same to some degree. To start, we will pair the most recent draftees with another player at the same position (if possible) as we work through this process to eventually cover the entire Steelers roster.

Next up are centers Zach Frazier and Ryan McCollum.

Zach Frazier

Position: Center
Years with the Steelers: 1
Years in the NFL: 1
Contract Status: Signed through 2027
Contract Details: $1,714,594 salary cap hit for 2025. Would cost the Steelers $3,667,597 in dead money if released.
Games played in 2023: 15 regular season
Games started in 2023: 15 regular season
Snaps (regular season): 976 (offense)
PFF score: 77.9 (5th of 40)
Notable stats: Frazier had five penalties called on him in 2024, two of which were declined or offsetting. According to PFF he surrendered one sack and 12 total QB pressures.

Notes: There are a lot of Steelers fans who are really excited about Zach Frazier. And they should be. While some may bring up the point that Frazier landed as the starter at the beginning of the season because of the injury to Nate Herbig, that does not mean that he may not have won the job outright. Regardless, Frazier was going to be the Steelers starting center at some point early in the season as he was just showing too much promise. That promise translated onto the field in his rookie season. While some may believe Frazier hit a bit of a rookie wall at the end of the year, if he did it was more about slowing down his trajectory that it was a decrease in performance. In all, the biggest knock on Frazier‘s rookie year is the fact he missed two games due to injury.

Ryan McCollum

Position: Center
Years with the Steelers: 3 (including practice squad)
Years in the NFL: 4 (including practice squad)
Contract Status: Free Agent
Contract Details: Contract expiring with no dead money.
Games played in 2023: 17 regular season
Games started in 2023: 2 regular season
Snaps (regular season): 154 (offense), 66 (special teams)
PFF score: 50.3 (N/A for ranking)
Notable stats: McCollum had 2 penalties called on him in 2024. According to PFF he surrendered no sacks and four total QB pressures.

Notes: It was a pleasant surprise that Ryan McCollum was able to slide into the starting lineup for two games for an injured Zach Frazier and not have the production fall off a cliff. Although he is not under contract with the Steelers for next season, I would love to see McCollum come back as he showed he can be a quality depth piece and deserves a spot on a 53-man roster somewhere in the NFL if not with the Steelers.

Make sure you check back each day for another set of exit interviews. If you have missed any of the previous articles, they are listed here:

Troy Fautanu & Broderick Jones