The Pittsburgh Steelers final preseason game of 2023 will take place Thursday night and then by Tuesday at 4 PM/EST the team will need to finally set their initial 53-man roster. Will there be any trades made by the Steelers come Wednesday morning? It’s quite possible and their history dating back to 2012 supports that as a possibility as well. As for possible players that the Steelers might trade, NFL.com’s Eric Edholm has a surprising player listed for them in his latest article.
The player? Center Kendrick Green, the team’s former third round selection in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Illinois.
“Here’s another 2021 third-round interior O-lineman with starting experience who could be on borrowed time with his AFC North team,” Edholm penned on Thursday concerning Green and him possibly being traded by the Steelers. “The Steelers appear to be running out of options with Green, who started 15 games at center as a rookie but spent the entire 2022 campaign as a game-day inactive.”
Edholm goes on to write about Green, “There just doesn’t appear to be a future for him in Steeltown.”
Obviously, it certainly appears as though Green’s time in Pittsburgh could come to an end by Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET. The team, however, has given him a lot of playing time during the preseason at center and that will likely continue Thursday night against the Falcons. That preseason playing time comes on the heels of Green receiving some action at fullback during training camp. Even so, the Steelers have yet to use Green at fullback so far during the preseason. Maybe that will change Thursday night against the Falcons. We’ll see.
While Green has played a lot at center this preseason, his play hasn’t been great at the position, and it supports the team’s decision to have him inactive for all 17 regular season games in 2022. In short, Green’s trade value, at least entering the Thursday night preseason finale, doesn’t seem to be very high. In fact, I’d dare say that the Steelers would be lucky to get a seventh-round selection in return for Green at this point.
Should, however, Steelers GM Omar Khan wind up getting anything for Green in a trade, kudos to him. I don’t suppose that’s impossible because after all, Khan was able to trade former WR Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears in exchange for the 32nd overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft. I mean, who really saw that kind of return coming for Claypool?
Personally, I’m really surprised that Edholm didn’t list fellow Steelers offensive lineman Kevin Dotson in his trade candidate post instead of Green. I mean, most of us have speculated for some time now that if any one player on the Steelers could be traded prior to Week One, it would most likely be Dotson, who has been battling a shoulder injury for most of the month of August.
All of this trade speculation aside, we don’t have long now to wait until we see who might be sent off via a pre-Week One trade. Or who might be incoming via a trade. By Wednesday morning, we should have those questions answered.
