Steelers C Zach Frazier knows he can’t keep botching snaps with Aaron Rodgers, as he has the past two days. On the first rep of Seven Shots on each day, he and Rodgers fumbled the exchange, resulting in lost plays. But nobody seems particularly worried about it, least of all HC Mike Tomlin, who addressed it after practice.
“We’ll never like it, but we’ll get through it”, Tomlin said via the Steelers’ website, after watching Frazier and Rodgers out of sync for the second day in a row to open training camp. “It will be something that will be in our rearview mirror”.
Zach Frazier is a second-year center who started as a rookie and is now working with Aaron Rodgers for the first time. Rodgers did not sign until just before minicamp, and he did not participate in team drills.
According to Frazier, before the break, the coaches gave the linemen recordings of Rodgers’ cadence to study. But there’s no substitute for the real thing, as the duo is quickly finding out. The second-year center isn’t happy about it, but he isn’t concerned, either.
“Just can’t do it”, Frazier told Joe Rutter about his botched snaps to Rodgers. “The rest were fine. That’s two days in a row. I’ll get it fixed. You can’t have it, obviously. It’s not something I normally have a problem with. It will be fixed”.
Since entering the league 15 months ago, Zach Frazier has already worked with four different primary quarterbacks. Last season, he worked with both Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. This year, before Aaron Rodgers signed, Frazier worked all offseason with Mason Rudolph as the functional starter.
“It’s different”, Frazier conceded about working with Rodgers. Back in OTAs, he admitted that there is an advantage to having reps with your quarterback in that process. “Just the past couple days is really the first work we’ve gotten with him”.
The good news is Frazier and Rodgers have the rest of the season to work things out. After yesterday’s botched snap, Tomlin briefly pulled Frazier. Assuming it was intentional, one imagines it sends the message that nobody is free from consequences.
A second-round pick in 2024, Zach Frazier had a strong rookie season that has many predicting big things. Mark Kaboly, for example, sees him making upwards of 10 Pro Bowls, which is rather ambitious. Even amid his strong rookie season, however, he did have some quarterback-exchange issues.