Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.
C RYAN MCCOLLUM
Experience/age: 13 regular-season games, 26
Contract status: $915,000 cap hit if he makes the team in 2024
The past: A part-time starter at guard during his redshirt freshman and sophomore seasons and entrenched as the every-snap center as a senior at Texas A&M, McCollum signed with the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2021. He did not make the 53-man roster out of the preseason but was immediately added to the practice squad and remained on it until the Detroit Lions signed him off of it to their active roster in Week 5. McCollum appeared in all 13 of Detroit’s games the rest of his rookie season, including making a start at center during a December game in Denver. Aside from that he was mostly limited to special-teams duty but did play 38 snaps at center over parts of three other Lions games in 2021.
But McCollum didn’t even make it through the following year’s training camp with Detroit. Waived after one preseason game, the Steelers claimed McCollum on Aug. 16, 2022, and (aside from 19 days over two stints when he was a free agent) he’s mostly been with the organization ever since.
Pretty cool to see the @KLEINOAKFB alum Ryan McCollum get the big block and the @KleinCollins RB Spiller with the run ???? @KleinOak@isaiah_spiller@AggieFootballpic.twitter.com/kQEZDwZvsA
— Thomas Hensley (@thomashensley) November 29, 2020
2024 outlook: The 6-foot-5, 300-pound McCollum has been on the practice squad for all but one of the Steelers’ games over the past two seasons. He has regularly taken snaps as a third- or scout-team center during camp settings and in-season practices over that time, though on occasion he has lined up at guard.
When the Steelers released two-year starting center Mason Cole early this past offseason, McCollum had his name mentioned as an option to replace him. Veteran Nate Herbig was in the proverbial “pole position” on paper throughout the early spring until the Steelers selected West Virginia’s Zach Frazier during the second round of the draft. Herbig remained repping with the starters throughout organized team activities and minicamp, though no one would be surprised if Frazier usurps him in that role at some point during training camp or the preseason.
That has dropped McCollum to the No. 3 center spot. And if Frazier shows he was worthy of the No. 51 overall pick and Herbig doesn’t have any slip-ups while working at center (he has been more of a guard as a pro), there does not leave much room for McCollum. In that scenario, he would have to show a high degree of guard-capability to have a chance to crack the active roster. But even if Frazier and Herbig prove a quality 1-2 punch at center, McCollum has value as depth at that position and for the scout team again from the practice squad. And if something should happen to one of those two, the Steelers have an option in reserve in McCollum.
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.