Guards And Centers On The Steelers (For Now) And In The Draft

First things first. I flat out G.U.A.R.A.N.T.E.E. that the interior offensive line (“IOL”) group will NOT look the same after free agency.

1. The current group has actual holes where we cannot see a viable starter;
2. The Steelers abhor the idea of going into the draft with a “need” to pick a starter;
3. Kevin Colbert and has said that Guard and Center are both weak positions in this year’s draft class;
4. The team has salary cap room available;
5. The team has not spent many available interviews on IOL prospects; and thus
6. The team is going to add to this group significantly once free agency opens up. At least one move will be made well before the draft, and quite possibly two.

Thus I urge you to read what follows in the spirit of understanding those moves once they happen and/or trying to predict them if that’s your game. Please do not get in a tizzy, nor fill the Comments section with panic and despair about how the team is headed the 2022 season with the same sort of weakness we saw in 2021. It ain’t gonna happen, so spare us the hysterics.

Happy and content with the status quo? Me? Not exactly.

THE CURRENT ROSTER

The Steelers require three starters on the interior offensive line (LG, C, and RG), and typically carry a total of five. The backup Center (currently J.C. Hassenauer) will ideally be able to move outside to Guard, but he’s usually undersized for the job (like JCH). The backup Guard (nonexistent) will ideally be a promising young buck who hopes to challenge one of the starters. It’s also common to have a backup Tackle who can move inside to play Guard, and can hopefully challenge the backup Guard for that role. Position flexibility really matters at these spots, as you can see.

Indeed, one of the Steelers’ problems on the OL lies in a lack of that flexibility. It starts with the fact that none of the three top Tackles (Dan Moore Jr., Zach Banner, and Chuks Okorafor) has the ability to move inside. But it isn’t just the Tackles. Pittsburgh’s Centers (Green and Hassenauer) are both too small to succeed as Guards, and none of the Guards have the ability to move inside. In other words the 2021 group was neither strong nor flexible, which explains why it will not, Not, NOT look like this when draft day rolls around… but we’ve gone over that already. Here are the current names.

• C Kendrick Green. 6’1⅞”, 305 lbs. with shorter 32¼” arms and big 10⅛” hands. Failed in his rookie year, but hope springs eternal and it may be justified. Discussed in more detail below. I will say here that I do not believe he can move to Guard full time. His size limits him to the Center position as a starter, though he may have the native stuff to be a decent emergency Guard who can offer spot starts.
• LG Kevin Dotson. 6’4″, 310 lbs. (now listed at 321 lbs., which may well be true) with 33″ arms and 10½” hands. Underperformed in an injury ridden 2022 season, after a very promising rookie run in 2021. The biggest issue in 2022 was an ankle injury he just couldn’t get over. Should be a quality part of the unit unless it turns out to be a long term problem, but the position could be upgraded by a star even if Dotson returns healthy. No position versatility to speak of.
• RG Trai Turner. 6’2⅝”, 315 lbs. with 34″ arms and 9½” hands. Turns 29 in June. A 2014 Round 3 pick by the Panthers who played at a pro bowl level until he was traded to the Chargers in 2020. That was a tough year due to a nagging groin injury. The Chargers released him after the season, the Steelers picked him up to replace David DeCastro, and he failed at what was probably an impossible task. His veteran presence helped, and he stayed healthy, but his play grades out as average to slightly below. No position versatility. Currently an unrestricted free agent.
• C2 J.C. Hassenauer. 6’2″, 295 lbs. with 33″ arms and 10½” hands. A likeable, try-hard, backup Center who was one of the Falcons 2018 UDFA’s. He played in the AAF in 2019, after which he was signed by the Steelers to the practice squad. From there he went to Baltimore in 2020, and then back to the ‘burgh in 2021. Acceptable backup depth who provided some decent emergency starts at the end of the year. Vastly undersized to play Guard, but those long arms at least let him try.
• C/G3 B.J. Finney. 6’3¾”, 318 lbs. with short 32” arms and 10” hands. A 2015 Steelers UDFA who made good, becoming a solid backup at both Center and Guard from 2017-2019. Seattle signed him away on a big deal in 2020, then traded him to Cincinnati where the wheels fell off in the Covid year. Pittsburgh quickly signed him back for 2021, but the wheels were still off. He could not beat out the underperforming rookie (Kendrick Green), and then hurt his back in Week 13. Status unknown, except that he’s a free agent.

IOL Depth From Tackles:

• T/G Joe Haeg. 6’6″, 304 lbs. with 33¾” arms and 9⅝” hands. A 2016 Round 5 pick by the Colts who’s become an all-around sound backup at both Tackle and Guard. Earned a 2020 Super Bowl ring in Tampa Bay before joining the Steelers in 2021 on a two-year deal. Set to earn $2.6 Million in 2022.
• T/G John Leglue. 6’6¼”, 310 lbs. with 34⅛” arms and 10” hands. A 2019 UDFA for the Broncos who joined the Steelers practice squad in 2020, and has bounced on and off. Played some decent emergency snaps at Guard in 2021 despite being nominally a Tackle.

IOL Futures and Practice Squad Depth:

• DEPTH OL Malcolm Pridgeon. 6’6″ with extremely long 35⅞” arms and big 10⅛” hands. A 2019 UDFA who’s bounced around despite the nice measurements and good experience at Ohio State. Struggling to rise to the level of journeyman.
• DEPTH OL Nathan Gilliam. 6’4¾”, 310 lbs. A 2020 UDFA who signed with the Chargers and lasted on their practice squad for a year before getting cut. The Steelers signed him to the practice squad in 2021 when Malcolm Pridgeon got Covid, and then liked him enough to sign him to a futures contract after the season. He’s built like a Center but plays only Guard. Stout but undersized. Faces a fight to make the practice squad, let alone the team.

VERDICT

• CTR: A Year 2 starter who failed in his rookie year but has reasonable hopes to improve;
• LG: A Year 3 starter who showed major flashes as a rookie but was meh in an injury-ridden Year 2;
• RG: Empty, except for an unrestricted free agent who’d fit best as veteran depth;
• CTR Depth: A try-hard, undersized player working to be a journeyman; and
• G Depth: The Guard-capable OT4 and OT5.

Ick. The only real positive is my realization that Pittsburgh has not been ignoring the O-Line situation despite what happened last year. Two years ago they obtained someone who should hopefully be a quality starting Guard. Last year they obtained a quality starting Tackle. That’s a rebuild that is well underway, with young players who should improve. And last year they may have also obtained a Center who could improve… Or did they?

DIGGING DEEPER INTO KENDRICK GREEN

The one who needs more attention is, of course, Center Kendrick Green. I have mixed feelings about this player.

First, I want to say that Steeler Nation as a whole has been surprisingly fair. Yes, he’s received some vocal scorn that goes too far, particularly from the group of fans who don’t accept that young players actually improve with time. But OTOH, I have not heard bad things about the young man as a human being even from those extremists, nor any real objections about his football character. Even his worst critics acknowledge that Kendrick Green plays with real passion, and seems to have the sort of focus and internal grit needed to achieve the best version of himself on the football field. Those are real assets, and I want to tip my hat to the fan base for acknowledging the good parts even as we’ve howled about the issues.

All of which gets me to the basic point. How long will it take before we see that “best version,” and will be good enough to start in the NFL? The one thing we know for sure is that the rookie version simply was not.

At some point we will get a deep, careful study of Green’s rookie year to point out what the issues really were and how solvable they might be. Some people, for example, have focused on his lack of ideal size. The team website lists Kendrick Green at 6’4″, 315 lbs., but that is far bigger than his Combine measurements of 6’1⅞”, 305 lbs. with 32¼” arms and big 10⅛” hands. I’m willing to accept the new weight, but not the idea that he’s suddenly grown extra inches. [Laughs] Limited height and length often equates to problems against the sort of mammoth NT’s who people that AFC North defenses, an issue that can be ameliorated but never completely solved. It was the main thing people criticized in Pouncey’s game. And, sure enough, Green has had similar problems. So lack of length is probably a factor.

But his issues went deeper than that. Many respected fans have complained about a lack of balance. “He ends up on the ground way too often!” These were issues on his film at Illinois too, where he was known to get overaggressive, to lunge, and to then end up on the turf when opponents used that against him. The pros, needless to say, take advantage of flaws like that much more often and effectively. On the other hand, too much aggression is a good problem to have, and one that’s easy to solve. So… How many of his 2021 issues came from bad technique (lunging), and how many from natural flaws? Again, we need that study. But my hunch is that overaggression is only a small part of the problem because he would have learned better quickly enough. Nothing teaches a young player to fix his flaws like getting schooled for those mistakes on national TV! So I think there’s got to be more to it.

The best “deep” explanation I’ve come across provides some real comfort. I first heard it last week, while listening to the Steelers Nation Radio pre-Combine coverage. Max Starks, who knows more about O-Line play than all of us put together, emphatically told the panel that almost all of Kendrick Green’s major issues came from snapping the ball too slowly. He simply hadn’t done it enough in college to make the action into an unconscious, blink of the eye reflex, and that had trickle down consequences that poisoned the rest of his game. Opponents figured it out and started to either attack his right (snapping) arm, or to bluff at that arm. The slow snap put him a half beat behind, which in turn forced him to angle his body toward that side to cover the weakness. Doing that created predictable holes on the other side too. A double whammy that made him less decisive, and easier to distract from the new mental demands of making all the line calls.

I like this explanation because it explains so many things, and also because it is exactly the sort of issue an offseason of dedicated work can fix. Particularly if you have Maurkice Pouncey to help.

All of which leaves the bottom line. We now have some pretty good reasons to believe that Kendrick Green will be a better player in 2022 than he was in 2021. He won’t be as new to the position. He won’t be a rookie. He will have a better grasp of both the mental and physical requirements for playing the pivot position in the NFL. He will have addressed the snap speed issue that poisoned his rookie play. And, given his character assets, he will have put in the requisite work. OTOH, we have no way to be sure that all of those factors will be enough to make Kendrick Green a functioning NFL Center, let alone a player who can live up to the incredibly lofty standard set by Mansfield-to-Webster-to-Dawson-to-Hartings-to-Pouncey.

Are you the sort who want to live in your hopes, and who refuses to punt on a top-100 pick after just one year? Good for you, and I agree. Are you on the other side? Please reconsider. But regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, let’s agree that the team could really use some insurance; and it would be nice to have more insurance than J.C. Hassenauer can provide on his own.

Free agency is going to be innnnteresting, no?

CONCLUSION

Same as we started out. This roster will not, Not, NOT look the same on draft day as it does today. The current unit has at least two active holes at Right Guard and Backup Guard, and may have two more at Center and Backup Center. I 100% G.U.A.R.A.N.T.E.E. that the Steelers will make a significant move or two in free agency to shore this up. Those moves will reduce the need from a dire emergency down to something the team could live with. Will it take IOL off the worry list completely? That depends on how you view the likely development of Kevin Dotson and Kenyon Green. In the end we will have to wait and see.

THE INCOMING DRAFT CLASS OF 2022

Kevin Colbert has called the Guard/Center group one of the weaker areas of the class, and my reading to date confirms that. The Round 1 options include the following prospects. [NOTE: Meetings are marked as “formal,” “informal,” or “Unknown” according to the entries on Steeler Depot’s Combine Interview Master List]:

• Evan Neal and Ickey Ekwonu Two Guard-capable super-athletes who are likely to go in the Top 5 in their capacity as Tackles;
• Center Tyler Linderbaum (unknown meeting), a badly undersized Round 1 Center with fantastic mobility and guts who probably won’t fit the Steelers scheme;
• Guard Kenyon Green (unknown meeting), who had Round 1 tape but did not look good at the Combine; and
• G/C Zion Johnson, the player I pin my personal hopes on, who had five (!) meetings with the team at the Senior Bowl.

That makes all of one Round 1 prospect the front offense has paid serious attention to. At least so far. Rounds 2 and 3 offer a pretty good selection of slow-footed Tackles who should be good at Guard. This includes the likes of:

• G Darian Kinnard (no meeting);
• G Sean Rhyan (no meeting);
• G Luke Goedeke (no meeting);
• G/C Dylan Parham (no meeting);
• G/T Jamaree Salyer (informal meeting);
• G/C Ed Ingram (informal meeting);
• G/C Lecitus Smith (unknown meeting);
• G Tyler Smith (unknown meeting);
• C/G Luke Fortner (no meeting); and
• G Cole Strange (no meeting).

Not a single formal meeting in the group. One senses a pattern here…

THE INTERIOR OFFENSIVE LINE BIG BOARD

Here are the prospects as I’ve collected them so far. See my prior article for the players who are primarily Tackles (shown in italicized orange). The gray entries indicate players who are considered to be Centers at heart with some Guard flexibility.

NOTE: Please drop a comment with your notes on these grades. I have struggled with many of them, including whether Johnson and Green should be moved up to 1:15, whether Linderbaum should be dropped into Round 2 for his lack of fit, and how to treat all those Round 2-3 prospects that the team has either ignored or nodded to in passing. Remember: this is supposed to be a community board, not mine alone, so your input really matters. Also remember that grades never, ever get pushed up because of present need, and can wait to be pushed down later once we see how free agency has altered the landscape. For now let’s just assume that the RG spot is filled with [yawn] and proceed from there; no longer an urgent need, but certainly a spot that could be improved.