There is a lot riding on the Steelers' young offensive line.

This is a team that wants to run the football, attack defenses off play-action and use the running game to flip the script on defenses and be able to attack with dropback passes, as well. All of that means very little if the offensive line can't get the job done.

Zach Frazier is the anchor of this unit. And while he's a second-year player, he's in a much better position this time around to lead the offensive line through the season.

Here's a little more than a minute I had with Frazier following Thursday's OTAs at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, discussing a lot of the reasons why:

• How is it different this time around, not being a rookie anymore?

"I feel like it's completely different. You kind of know what to expect now. Last year going into this time, you had no idea. Didn't know what to expect, didn't know what practices were like, still didn't have a good grasp of the playbook. Now it feels a lot better. It's nice."

• On what he can take from last year and apply it in Year 2:

"It's cleaning up the mistakes, and just trying to polish my game. That's the main thing for me. I like to focus on what I can clean up and how I can be better as a football player."

• Any one thing to improve on? Or just across the board?

"It's across the board. It's all of those things. It's communication, it's hand placement. I feel like everything -- I'm pretty hard on myself. I feel like I can be better at everything. Hand placement, communication, just everything across the board."

Mike Tomlin puts a lot of emphasis on second-year players having to make a big jump following their rookie season. You'll hear Tomlin refer to guys in their "second lap around the track" quite a bit over the next few months during OTAs, minicamp and training camp. Why? It's because of all the reasons Frazier mentioned.

Rookies are thrust from the grueling draft process into team development in a hurry. Not only are they having to learn a completely new team, but at a completely different level. Frazier even said today how much simpler college playbooks are compared to NFL playbooks. There's a lot to take in on the mental side, making it very difficult to develop or fine tune anything on the field.

Now, all of that is behind Frazier, and the rest of the offensive line, as well. Everything on the mental side is a lot more second nature, putting him in a better position to grow as a player.

The Steelers have invested quite a bit in the offensive line. Frazier's a second-round pick from the same class in which Troy Fautanu was selected in the first round and Mason McCormick was selected in the fourth round. Those three second-year players make up 60% of the starting offensive line.

Broderick Jones is a third-year player, a former first-round pick and he's now the starting left tackle. That's 80% of the offensive line that have two years or less of NFL experience. Perhaps no player has more riding on this season than Jones, who regressed in his second year. But, early impressions in OTAs are high on Jones being back on his natural side.

"He seems to be more comfortable at left (tackle)," Frazier said. "Hopefully, that feels more like home for him."

The trenches have been a priority for the Steelers ever since Omar Khan was named general manager and Andy Weidl was named assistant GM. The offensive line is young, but it's a testament to how much this franchise values being able to build up the trenches through the draft. They need these players to develop into a strong unit together.

The players know that. They see what's being invested in them and know they need to take a big step forward in 2025.

"We want to build that core," Frazier said. "We want to keep that core together for as long as we can and build on that."