Yet to play an NFL snap, let alone grab a starting job, Pittsburgh Steelers’ rookie center Kendrick Green continues to receive a lot of attention and hype.
The latest round of attention and hype for Green comes from Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox, who named the rookie the team’s secret weapon as a player who flies under the radar and isn’t as well-known ahead of the 2021 season.
Green, a third-round pick out of Illinois, is likely going to win the Steelers’ starting center job in training camp over J.C. Hassenauer and B.J. Finney and take over for the retirement of Maurkice Pouncey in the offseason.
“Center will be an important position for a couple of reasons,” Knox writes. “For one, 39-year-old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger needs to remain upright and healthy if the Steelers are going to make a playoff push. Secondly, the Steelers had the league’s worst rushing attack in 2020 and will need to open holes for rookie first-round pick Najee Harris. Pittsburgh’s offensive line is undergoing a few changes in 2021—left tackle Alejandro Villanueva also departed in the offseason—and Green may be the secret weapon that makes the transition work.”
Center will certainly be an important position for the Steelers in 2021, just as much as the four other starting offensive line positions will be since the Steelers underwent such a significant overhaul up front. The good news for the Steelers is it appears Green will be the guy to step in and help reshape the identity and mentality up front.
“He is exceptionally explosive and twitched up with outstanding core strength and natural leverage that make him a plug-and-play starter at the pivot in a zone-based run scheme,” Brandon Thorn of the B/R NFL Scouting Department wrote about Green.
We’ll obviously have to wait and see how the undersized center performs on the field in the NFL, but expectations remain high for the third-round pick in the black and gold.
