When the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Kendrick Green out of Illinois in the 2021 NFL draft, they got themselves a very good guard. So what did they do? Immediately try to turn him into a center. With only four starts at center under his belt in college, the Green experiement was Pittsburgh was a failure in every way.
Green talked about the failed experiment at training camp and made it clear he didn’t even like playing center last season. “To be honest, I didn’t really like playing center, but it is what it is,” Green said. “I’m happy to get back to what I did.”
After his retirement, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger noted that he felt like Green needed to move to guard and thought he could be great there. Most fans realized pretty quickly last season the position switch wasn’t working but it wasn’t until very late in the season when head coach Mike Tomlin decided to sit Green down.
Now this season, Green is working against Kevin Dotson for one of the starting guard spots. Green took the bulk of the first-team reps on Thursday and given his college resume should be able to carve out a nice career at guard.
