Kendrick Green ‘Glad’ He’s Not with Steelers Anymore

Former Pittsburgh Steelers guard Kendrick Green will be in the starting lineup when his former club comes to visit his new team, the Houston Texans, on Sunday.

To hear Green tell the story, he’s glad to be on his new side of it.

The Steelers drafted Green in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Green played mostly guard at Illinois, but because he is slightly undersized for the position at the NFL level, the Steelers moved Green to center, where they had a vacancy after the retirement of Maurkice Pouncey.

Green started 15 games for the Steelers in 2021, in what was considered to be an unmitigated failure. By the end of the season, he was benched for former undrafted free agent J.C. Hassenauer.

The Steelers moved Green back to guard in 2022, but with the team much deeper there, he never saw the field. In 2023, they again tried him at center and even fullback before trading him to the Texans on Aug. 29 in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick.

“I’m glad it happened. I’m glad I’m not there anymore,” Green said to reporters in Houston on Friday, via Aaron Wilson of KRPC in Houston.

“I’m just looking at it as just another game, going out there to play my best. Just good that I’ll see some familiar faces on the other side. Got put in a pretty tough spot when I was there, and just think it’s fortunate the way it worked out.”

With Houston, Green has played exclusively his more-natural guard positon. Green said in 2022 that he never wanted to learn center, and it’s clear the ordeal of being pushed into the center position in Pittsburgh is something that he is glad is behind him.

Green will start for the second week in a row, as the Texans are dealing with multiple injuries along their offensive line.