You know how in baseball and basketball there’s scouting reports on players based on a single side? A point guard who can’t go to his right. A baseball player who mashes righties, absolutely sucks versus lefties. Kendrick Green is in a similar position. Maybe not to that degree but when he has to move to his left off the ball, quarterbacks better stay frosty. Because the ball is going wide right.
Green’s snapping issues have been well-documented with two obvious miscues in the team’s first two preseason games. He airmailed one in the opener against Tampa Bay that QB Mason Rudolph fell on, losing a bunch of yards in the process. He snapped early in Saturday’s win against Buffalo, one the Bills recovered and scored on one play later.
But they haven’t been his only problems. Rudolph has bailed Green out twice on off-line snaps that were too far right, corralled and hauled in by Rudolph to hide the mistake. And on each of those bad snaps, Green has been moving to his left on the snap. And those snaps? They’ve been going right.
Showing is telling so here are the four I’ve been able to identify. The common thread is the direction Green is blocking.
Now, the Bills early snap is more of an exception. It seems like Green thought the Bills jumped offsides, leading to a snap Rudolph wasn’t expecting and the ensuing disaster. Not that it makes things much better.
It seems Green’s momentum of pushing left off the ball is causing his snaps to float to the right. He’s got the yips, just like former Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitcher Steve Blass, who suddenly lost his control one day and never gained it back (of course, Blass’ success was far higher than Green’s before his crash).
I’m no expert of snapping mechanics but offensive line guru Duke Manyweather weighed in on some tips that could fix that problem.
But even he admitted those tips aren’t a “cure-all” and Green is having these issues late in the summer. It isn’t exclusive to in-stadium play. He had at least one or two poor snaps in training camp, though it’s hard to say if he was moving to his right or left in those moments.
The reality is Green’s time in Pittsburgh seems to be coming to a close. The team has given him every chance to win the backup center job. He hasn’t and the Steelers will turn to either Nate Herbig, rookie Spencer Anderson, or an outside option. Green has gone from starter to reserve and now likely off the roster completely. It isn’t all his fault, we wrote the Steelers failed Green more than the other way around, but a mistake is a mistake. Pittsburgh’s about to admit it.
