Feb 23, 2024 5 min read

The NFL Scouting Combine will be held this week in Indianapolis, bringing all 32 NFL teams together in what is the sporting world’s largest mass interview.

That means the NFL will have gone two whole weekends without capturing the attention of the sporting world.

Expect to see some pretty impressive displays put on at this combine, especially from the offensive linemen.

This is as good a group of players overall at that position as there has been in some time, so much so that a dozen offensive linemen could hear their names called in the first round of the draft in April.

Two of those will be of interest to local college football fans.

Penn State’s Olu Fashanu is considered one of the top players available in this year’s draft and could solidify himself as a top-10 pick with a good workout and interviews.

West Virginia center Zach Frazier, a Fairmont, W.Va., native, also is gaining steam as a potential first-round pick.

Frazier suffered a broken leg late in West Virginia’s season but told me at the Senior Bowl that he hopes to work out this week. A video was posted on social media last week of him running on a treadmill.

At the very least, he’ll be ready to return to action at West Virginia’s Pro Day next month.

Frazier was a four-time West Virginia state wrestling champion at Fairmont. You can see that experience in his gritty style of play.

He would be too high of a pick in the first round for the Steelers, who own the 20th selection. But it’s also doubtful he lasts until their second-round pick.

In Daniel Jeremiah’s second mock draft released last week on NFL.com, Frazier goes at pick No. 29 to the Detroit Lions.

• The coaching staff of the Las Vegas Raiders is starting to take on a Washington County feel.

Earlier this week, W&J graduate Joe Philbin joined new head coach Antonio Pierce’s staff as a senior offensive assistant.

Philbin is a longtime NFL offensive line coach and former head coach of the Miami Dolphins. He’ll be reunited with Raiders offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, a Steel Valley High School graduate with whom he worked when both were assistant coaches with the Packers.

He’ll join a staff on which McDonald native and Fort Cherry High School graduate Marvin Lewis is the assistant head coach under Piece.

Lewis, the longtime head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, worked at Arizona State where Pierce was a special advisor. Pierce added Lewis as an advisor for the Raiders last season when he was elevated to interim head coach, then hired him as assistant head coach when his interim tag was removed.

• The Steelers are 13-7 in Kenny Pickett’s starts since the bye week of the 2022 season. Pickett has thrown just only interceptions in those starts.

He’s also thrown only 11 touchdown passes in that same span, but too many people are getting caught up in the fantasy statistics when it comes to the Steelers’ quarterback situation.

Wins and losses are the bottom line.

More touchdown passes would certainly be welcome, but that’s where new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith could come into play.

In Smith’s two seasons as offensive coordinator for the Titans in 2019 and 2020, Tennessee produced 62 touchdown passes – with Ryan Tannehill and Marcus Mariota at quarterback.

• If the Steelers are unable to re-sign Mason Rudolph, it would not be surprising to see the Steelers sign Tannehill. That move would make a lot of sense. Tannehill wouldn’t need a lot of reps to learn the offense. He already knows it. The Steelers could then focus their efforts on getting Pickett plenty of practice reps – along with a rookie quarterback.

Don’t expect the Steelers to select a quarterback in the first few rounds of the draft, but taking one in the fourth round or later would make a lot of sense.

• The Penguins’ ceremony to retire Jaromir Jagr’s No. 68 was nice and all, but for all of the good will the night brought on, it couldn’t mask the fact the team lost again.

Evgeni Malkin is 37 and looks every bit that age. Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby are both 36 and could easily hit the same wall, though Crosby has played well this season.

And the Penguins are not likely going to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season. They’re way closer to last place in the Metropolitan Division than they are to first – or even a playoff spot.

It might be that all Penguins fans are going to have to look forward to in coming years are ceremonies such as the one they held for Jagr last Sunday night.

The Penguins’ other problem is that they traded away their first-round pick in the 2024 draft for the ill-advised trade to acquire defenseman Erik Karlsson from the Sharks. That pick is top-10 protected, but the Penguins currently have the ninth-fewest points in the NHL, but have games in hand over the teams just ahead of them.

They could be stuck in the area where they’re not good enough to make the playoffs, but not bad enough to get a top-10 pick that would allow them to keep their first-round selection.

Dale Lolley hosts The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.