Can Kendrick Green salvage his career? The Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping so, and not just because they made a third-round investment in him two years ago. It’s also because they need a backup center, and at the moment, he may well be the leading candidate. At the very least, perhaps concerningly, he has the most NFL experience among the reserves playing there.
After starting at center as a rookie, Green was ousted from the spot when the Steelers signed veteran Mason Cole to play there. He subsequently lost a competition to Kevin Dotson to start at left guard and spent his second year in the league as a healthy scratch. With top reserve center J.C. Hassenauer gone, though, he has been taking the second-team center snaps and has been talked up by his coaches and teammates.
Still, he has a long road ahead to not just redemption but having a job on the 53-man roster come September. He’s not the only candidate in the room, even if he has the most NFL experience playing center among the reserves. Spencer Anderson, a 2023 seventh-round pick, is in there to challenge, and veteran Nate Herbig has some center capability even if he hasn’t done it in a regular season game.
It’s part of an effort this offseason the Steelers have made to improve not just their starting five but also their depth. Discussing the group on Movin’ the Chains recently, Pat Kirwan weighed in on the team’s backups, and Green in particular.
“There’s a reason they’re backups. Four sacks, four holding calls, that kind of stuff. They’re not taking it anymore”, he said, referring to the team’s urgency to get better depth. “I do think you can call them and get Green out of there. And I would love to see someone who wants to work with him get him back to where he could be”.
Many feel as though Green’s biggest shortcomings are insurmountable. For one thing, he would probably be one of the smallest offensive linemen on a 53-man roster if his height were listed accurately, and watching the film, you do see that as an issue.
We also can’t ignore that he lost a starting competition to a player who was just replaced this offseason and who may also not be on the roster. And he did so after being given the opportunity to play his more natural position of guard. He failed there.
Granted, now Green’s only trying to be a backup, and has all of this offseason to work on playing center, after starting most of the season there in 2021. With a position coach in Pat Meyer he believes in and who believes in him, and a mentor in Cole—two things he didn’t have as a rookie—there is at least reason for hope.
Meyer has also expressed confidence in the team’s other options at backup center, naming the aforementioned above and even James Daniels, the starting right guard, who is actually a more natural center. The Steelers also have Ryan McCollum and William Dunkle among interior offensive linemen, and Isaac Seumalo—the other starting guard—can play center in a pinch as well.
