From big-time Alabama recruit to the AAF to the Steelers, J.C. Hassenauer carving out role

Did a season that went from Iron to Steel provide J.C. Hassenauer with enough mettle to make it over the long term in the NFL?

An interior offensive lineman who was part of a national championship team at Alabama, Hassenauer began last year as property of the Alliance of American Football’s Birmingham Iron. He ended it on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ active roster.

In between, he experienced two full training camps, a league folding in the middle of a season, getting cut by the Steelers and being brought back three months later for scout-team work before his Week 17 promotion to the 53-man roster.

“That’s just the business,” Hassenauer said. “It’s just how it is. You just have to kind of adjust to it and be ready when your time is called.”

Hassenauer made sure he was ready for action Dec. 29 in Baltimore, but he never was summoned by the Steelers during their season-ending defeat. He was signed to the active roster because Pro Bowl stating center Maurkice Pouncey was out with a knee injury.

Even after taking part in two NFL training camps and spending the 2018 season on the Atlanta Falcons practice squad, getting a spot on the 53-man roster and being activated for a regular-season game meant something to Hassenauer.

“Definitely a huge moment,” he said. “Something I have worked for my whole life. It’d been a goal of mine.”

The 6-foot-2, 295-pound Hassenauer was the proverbial next man up at center (and guard) after backup B.J. Finney earned the start against the Ravens. Five weeks earlier, Hassenauer was signed to the Steelers practice squad after the loss of Patrick Morris to Denver on a waiver claim.

Hassenauer was known by Steelers brass after a strong training camp at Saint Vincent. The Steelers signed him in the spring after the AAF dissolved. Hassenauer had started eight games for the Iron.

The #Steelers signed a league-high six AAF alums to their 91-man offseason rosterhttps://t.co/4I6U7QSjBN

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) July 14, 2019

“(The AAF) was definitely a huge (career) stepping stone,” Hassenauer said. “When you’re on the practice squad, you don’t really get to share all the film at practice, obviously. So (to sell himself) I really was going back to the film I had from preseason games. Being able to get some more film out there helped other GMs and scouts really evaluate my style of play and my skillset.”

And his is quite a skillset. He was rated as the No. 1 center in the country for the 2014 incoming recruiting class.

But Hassenauer was almost exclusively a backup for an Alabama team that had an abundance of talent. Hassenauer did not start any games until his senior year, when he still was No. 2 on the depth chart.

Still, Hassenauer said “not at all” did he consider transferring.

“I believe in hard work and that whoever is the best guy should play,” he said, “and that’s what they do at Alabama and I don’t blame them for doing what they did. Every week I try to prepare like a starter and always be ready because you never know when your name is going to be called. And I believe when my name is called I was ready.”

Hassenauer was — and on the biggest of stages. He started three games his senior season, including the national championship game against Georgia. According to the Crimson Tide’s in-house evaluation, Hassenauer graded out as their best lineman that day. He did not allow a sack or a pressure and was not penalized in the 26-23 victory that gave Alabama its 17th national title.

With the Steelers facing questions at guard and with a line that, on the whole, is aging, Hassenauer could carve out a role for himself in the team’s future.

“(The NFL) is where I wanted to be, and this (the Steelers) is where I am,” Hassenauer said. “I’m working so that this is my career.”

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