The Pittsburgh Steelers went into the 2024 NFL Draft with a dire need at center and had three logical names to fill that hole competently as a rookie starter. Duke’s Graham Barton, Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson, and West Virginia’s Zach Frazier were widely considered the top three centers in the draft class, often getting projected to Pittsburgh either in the first or second round.
When Pittsburgh bypassed center on Day 1 of the draft to select Washington OT Troy Fautanu, the hope was that either Powers-Johnson or Frazier would fall to them at #51 overall in the second round after Barton went off the board to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Round 1.