Steelers rookie Frazier didn’t start for Alabama
Daron Payne], but when I was out there I just took advantage of my opportunity and made the best of the plays that I got.”
That experience — or lack thereof — helped Frazier in minicamp, when he got less action than established players like Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt.
“That’s just how the game goes sometimes,” Tuitt said. “When you’re not in, you gotta get as much information as possible … and he’s doing a really good job of doing that.”
Dunbar said during his previous stints as an NFL coach, he had good experiences with players he knew from their college days. Plus, the Steelers and Alabama play the 3-4 defense, making Frazier an even more natural fit for the team.
“Taking him late in the draft was something that we needed,” Dunbar said. “[Coach Mike Tomlin] wanted a big-bodied guy, and he’s working out.”
Frazier said having Dunbar around has put him at ease. He knows what to expect from Dunbar and doesn’t feel as though he has to prove himself again because Dunbar “knows what [he] can do already.”
And though he wasn’t making much of an impact during games in college, that doesn’t mean Frazier is unprepared to play in the NFL, he said. Being at a program as strong as Alabama’s meant Saturdays weren’t the only chance to learn.
“We have so many dudes at ‘Bama that really could’ve gone anywhere else and just played, including me,” Frazier said. “But going there, you know you’re going against the best every day.”
The NFL is “a different level,” as Heyward said, and Frazier acknowledged he had to “try not to be too starstruck” around new teammates like Heyward and wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Frazier is used to being surrounded by bigger names than him, though, and said he keeps a level head by reminding himself that he’s still playing on the same field he always has — “100 yards here, 53 yards wide” — for a coach who knows him well and had enough faith in him to give him a chance of playing in the NFL.
“All I have to do is just go out there and do my job every day and go out and grind,” Frazier said. “He’s already told me that I just gotta keep doing my thing.”