With the Steelers’ 2023 offseason well underway following a disappointing season that came up just short of reaching the playoffs, it’s time to begin reloading, through the free agency process, through the draft, and perhaps even through trade.
This is now a young team on the offensive side of the ball, though one getting older on defense. Both sides could stand to be supplemented robustly, including in the trenches—either one. Changes have been made to the coaching staff, even if not all of the desired ones, as the roster continues to renew with the weeks ticking by.
These sorts of uncertainties are what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
Topic Statement: Kendrick Green will reinvent himself as a solid depth offensive lineman.
Explanation: Get drafted high, start early, and you have the expectations set for you. Kendrick Green has already been assessed as a failure. A third-round pick who started at center as a rookie and then sat on the bench all of his second season, he is now trying to make it as a backup center—the position at which he started, but which was somewhat unfamiliar to him. More familiar now, and with less pressure, and (in his own assessment) better coaching both from the staff and teammates.
Buy:
This is the year of the Kendrick Green redemption arc. No, his career has not by any means been successful up to his point, and perhaps he’ll never be worth what most fans seem to think a third-round pick should be. But that doesn’t mean he can’t redefine himself as a solid reserve lineman, which is the path he’s on now.
If the season were to begin today, he would be the number two center behind Mason Cole. Even he knows he was in over his head as a rookie. Yes, he lost out to Kevin Dotson last year for the left guard job, but he did play better in the summer than he did as a rookie. Now back inside, where it’s easier to hide his size, and with the benefit of a coach in Pat Meyer, who is more receptive to him and, a mentor in Cole, neither of which he had as a rookie, he has the support structure to turn his career around.
Sell:
Kendrick Green has two fundamental issues, one of which is fundamental, the other he can’t do anything about. He is too small. It’s very difficult for an offensive lineman to make it in the NFL at his size. He may be stronger than the other NFL players at his height, but he still finds himself on his back or his knees far too often when he’s on the field.
That’s not just because of his size, but also because of shortcomings he has possessed, up to this point, in his fundamentals. Even if he ends up being the Steelers’ backup center this year by default because they have nobody else, that doesn’t mean he’ll suddenly be good or have a future beyond 2023. He hasn’t at this point even shown to be on the level of guys like Doug Legursky and J.C. Hassenauer.
