There probably is not a player on the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason whose roster spot is in significant jeopardy who has seen more press than third-year interior offensive lineman Kendrick Green. A former third-round draft pick, he was a full-time starter at center as a rookie before losing a starting competition a year later for left guard.
He ended up spending the entire 2022 season as a healthy scratch, never dressing. This summer, he is in no competitions to start, but he is trying to hang on, and he has a shot at becoming the team’s backup center now with J.C. Hassenauer gone. Green believes he’s in much better shape to handle the position now in many ways, thanks in no small part to the man who was signed to replace him, Mason Cole.
“It’s better this go around because my first year, I didn’t have anybody to lean on”, he told reporters Thursday at the end of minicamp, via Dale Lolley writing for the team’s website. “It was my first time doing it. I was kind of thrown out there”, he recalled of his rookie season starting at center, having had relatively little experience playing the position in college.
“Now, Mason has played a lot. For me, we can talk about how to approach certain blocks and things like that”, he said of the veteran starter. “He’s done it before. I have, too, but not as well as he has. I’m just trying to see how he does it. Mason has been a big advantage. He’s helped a lot”.
The team was looking for a replacement in 2021 after perennial Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey retired. Passing on options like Creed Humphrey in the second round in favor of tight end Pat Freiermuth, the Steelers were likely enamored with Green’s athletic profile, wanting to retain that quality at the position that so characterized Pouncey’s play over the previous decade.
But the 2021 season proved to be a rough one for him. While it wasn’t all bad, enough of it was for the Steelers to feel compelled to find an upgrade via free agency. They found that in Cole, who is now playing mentor to Green as the younger lineman hopes to revive his NFL career.
While there is a real chance that he fails to make the cut at the end of August, the question of who the backup center will be is a legitimate one. Green seems to be getting the most second-team reps right now, but there aren’t a lot of desirable alternatives.
Seventh-round rookie Spencer Anderson is capable of playing center and is working there now, but that isn’t his forte. Offensive line coach Pat Meyer also named Nate Herbig, a 2023 free agent signee who is really only experienced playing center during the offseason and the preseason.
One option that gets mentioned a lot when this discussion takes place is James Daniels, the only problem being the fact that he is the Steelers’ starting right guard. If he were your backup center and Cole got injured, then you would have to juggle two positions to fill one vacancy.
Teams prefer to avoid this situation if at all possible, but there are exceptions. Even the Steelers once played Pouncey at guard for a two-game stretch a number of years ago because they didn’t feel Doug Legursky, the top backup interior lineman, was as strong at guard as he was at center.
