Maurkice Pouncey retired earlier this offseason after 11 years in the league, while they have David DeCastro and Kevin Dotson to play at guard.
“I’m real comfortable at both” the guard and center positions, he told reporters yesterday following the opening day of rookie minicamp.
Otherwise, however, his attitude doesn’t change with regards to playing, whether it’s at center or guard.
Though he is capable playing the center position, however, he will be asked to do more than he would be used to, having made a small handful of starts at that position as an injury replacement.
“I can’t really put too much expectations on myself”, he said about the learning curve that he faces going from primarily playing guard in college to potentially being a full-time starting center at the NFL level.
The Steelers obviously believe that he is capable of handling the job, however—and they did say throughout the draft process that the center position was deeper this year than is typical—as they passed on other more experienced centers in the first two rounds.
Hassenauer have some experience starting games at center for the Steelers in recent years, and they will be competing for the job this Summer as well.