The Buffalo Bills made a slew of cap-saving cuts on Wednesday, and one of the moves was once getting rid of veteran middle Mitch Morse. Morse was once due $8.5 million in profits this upcoming season.
Morse spent 5 seasons in Buffalo and earned a Pro Bowl choice in 2022. After the failed Mason Cole experiment, it’s no secret that the Steelers are in need of a center, so Morse may want to be a attainable option. Albeit, they’ll most probably address the role early in the draft.
Morse turns 32 in April, so he’s really not a long-term solution. But he would be a big upgrade to Cole, who was launched with the aid of the Steelers on Feb. 23. Steelers popular supervisor Omar Khan feels satisfied with what they have at middle due to the fact of the positional flexibility of guards Nate Herbig and James Daniels, however particularly Herbig, who served as the team’s backup shield and middle in 2023.
“Right now, we have Nate Herbig,” Khan stated at the NFL Combine. “I usually talk about offensive linemen that have position flexibility. That’s always been vital to me. We have offensive linemen that are center-capable. But that’s now not to say that we’re no longer going to take a seem to be in free organization and the change market and the draft process. There’s some appropriate gamers at each one of those. We experience right about the middle draft. We experience correct about the middle free agents. …
“We have position-flexible guys that are starters in the league as it is, however we’re usually going to try to improve the team. We cut our starting core from final year. We sense correct about Nate Herbig. But if there’s an chance to deliver in some desirable competition, we’re going to do it.”
While Khan professed his self belief in Herbig playing center, if the group was once so assured that he could play there, why did he by no means get a shot to beat out Cole in 2023, while Cole struggled mightily? He has played much less than 50 snaps of center in his NFL career.
The Steelers have a splendid records in drafting centers, two of them are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — Mike Webster and Dermontti Dawson — and Maurkice Pouncey should be in Canton someday, as well. The Steelers nailed it when signing core Jeff Hartings in free organisation back in 2001, but they ignored on Sean Mahan in 2007 and Cole in 2022, along with drafting Kendrick Green in 2021.
Judging by means of Khan’s comments, it doesn’t seem like they’ll go the free agent route at core again, even though Morse is a strong veteran.
With top centers Jackson Powers-Johnson, Graham Barton, Zach Frazier and Sedrick Van Pran all likely options in the first three rounds, the Steelers are functionally nearly locking themselves into taking a center early if they don’t add a significant free agent.
