At the end of each NFL season, there are often many assessments made of recent draft classes. How did the rookies perform? Did the second year players make a jump? Who has earned the chance of an additional contract after a year three or four?

Looking specifically at the Steelers draft class of 2024, the entire class is defined by one thing more than others:

Injuries

Looking at the Steelers seven draft selections from last year, only three of them contributed significantly throughout the year as the other four were hampered by injuries. Even Zach Frazier, the Steelers Joe Green Award winner for rookie of the year, missed time due to an ankle injury. Of the two players who didn’t miss because of injury, Payton Wilson and Mason McCormick, they were the fourth and fifth players selected by the Steelers in the last draft. Typically when players taken around or beyond the 100th pick in the draft are contributing right away, it makes for a fantastic draft class. But when two of the top three picks appear in a total of two games because of injury, it bring things down.

Let’s take a brief look at how the season played out for the Steelers draft picks from 2024 and how injuries, such as time on the Reserve/Injured List (IR) affected things.

Note: Numbers are from the regular season only.

Troy Fautanu

1 game played
1 game started
55 offensive snaps
Placed on IR Sept. 21

Although he was available for the Steelers first game of the season, Troy Fautanu was fighting back from an injury he developed in training camp and did not start the first game of the season. But Week 2 saw Fautanu in the starting lineup and doing well in his NFL debut. Unfortunately, a knee injury in practice the following week had the Steelers top draft pick missing the remainder of the 2024 season.

Zach Fazier

15 games played
15 games started
976 offensive snaps
Missed Week 7 & Week 8

Although he inherited the starting job at the beginning of the season by default due to a season-ending injury to Nate Herbig, there was a good possibility Zach Frazier was going to earn the job on his own to start the year. The Steelers top rookie, Frazier did miss two games in the middle of the season due to an ankle injury. Also having the luxury of the bye week, Frazier returned for the remainder of the year and only had injuries as a footnote to his 2024 campaign.

Roman Wilson

1 game played
0 games started
5 offensive snaps
Only played Week 6; placed on IR Oct. 28

This one was a mess. Injuring his ankle in the first padded practice of training camp, Roman Wilson couldn’t find his way onto the field with the Steelers for the first five weeks of the season. After finally getting a helmet, Wilson only had five five snaps with no targets in his only NFL game. Wilson was then placed on IR and missed the remainder of the season with a hamstring injury.

Payton Wilson

17 games played
4 games started
492 defensive snaps, 301 special teams snaps
No time missed due to injury

The player who had the most injury concerns coming into the Steelers when selected in the 2024 draft was one of two players who did not have any time missed due to injury as a rookie. Hopefully this trend can continue for Payton Wilson as injury concerns was what likely had him taken in the third round and not selected higher.

Mason McCormick

17 games played
14 games started
939 offensive snaps, 72 special teams snaps
No time missed due to injury

While he didn’t miss any time due to injury his rookie season, injuries also defined Mason McCormick’s rookie year as it gave him the opportunity to break into the Steelers starting lineup. When James Daniels was lost for the year four games into the season, McCormick found his way into the starting lineup and was the beneficiary of “next man up.”

Logan Lee

No games played
Placed on IR Sept. 7

Although he made the initial 53-man roster, Logan Lee did not make it to the first game of the season before the Steelers placed him on IR with a calf injury.

Ryan Watts

No games played
Placed on IR Aug. 27

Even more than Logan Lee, Ryan Watts was placed on season ending IR before the Steelers cut down to 53 players and wasn’t even eligible to return for 2024 due to a neck injury.

So there is the Steelers 2024 rookie class and how they dealt with injuries throughout the season. Although he wasn’t drafted by the Steelers and instead was an undrafted free agent, Beanie Bishop remained healthy for the Steelers and appeared in all 17 games as well.

While it usually takes several years before fully being able to assess a certain draft class, it’s a tough starting point for the 2024 class with so many players missing time due to injury. Hopefully 2025 can bring increased participation and, hopefully, increased team success.