Steelers draft center Pouncey

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH, PA.

No trades for the Pittsburgh Steelers on the first day of the NFL draft. No surprises, either.

Despite widespread speculation they were looking to trade disgraced quarterback Ben Roethlisberger a day after he was suspended for six games, the Steelers held tight to their two-time Super Bowl winner. They didn’t solicit any trades and fielded no legitimate offers for him.

They did draft the player who, within a year, could be snapping the ball to Roethlisberger

The Steelers chose Florida offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey with the 18th pick in the NFL draft, the first center they’ve drafted in the first round in 73 years. That doesn’t mean they don’t have tradition at the position — to the contrary.

During a span of nearly 40 years from the mid-1960s until the mid-2000s, the Steelers had only four full-time starting centers who started more than a handful of games: Ray Mansfield, Hall of Famer Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawson and Jeff Hartings. Webster made it to nine Pro Bowls, Dawson to seven.

Pouncey knows what playing center for the Steelers means.

“They’ve had great players,” the 6-foot-4, 305-pound Pouncey said Thursday night in a telephone interview. “I just want to live up to the tradition, man.”

He already is.

Just as Dawson did by apprenticing at guard until he replaced Webster in the late 1980s, Pouncey is expected to play guard until he moves in at center for Justin Hartwig. The Steelers center makes the blocking calls for the entire line, and coach Mike Tomlin reasons it’s better for him to learn the offense before he starts running it.

“We’ve talked quite a bit about center being the hub of communication,” Tomlin said. “For a young guy it’s easier mentally to play guard, to receive information rather than giving it. Pre-snap, it should lessen his workload.”

The Steelers like Pouncey’s tradition of winning: he played on three state high school championship teams at Florida, and a national championship team with the Gators. His twin brother, Michael, is a Gators starting guard who will move to center for his senior season; Maurkice — which is pronounced Mahr-KEECE — is leaving school a year early.

Numerous mock drafts had Iowa tackle Bryan Bulaga going ahead of Pouncey, but the Steelers began focusing on Pouncey weeks ago. Bulaga went five picks later to Green Bay.

“He was our kind of guy,” Tomlin said of Pouncey.