Steelers Center Tabbed as Trade Candidate

The Steelers are not pleased with how Kendrick Green has played so far in the preseason. A former third-round pick, Green started his rookie year but disappointed and fell to a gameday inactive last season. Other players like Spencer Anderson, Nate Herbig, and Ryan McCollum are in the mix to win that job. Green’s inaccurate snaps and inconsistency at the point of attack in the run and passing game have destroyed his stock. But Mike Tomlin is confident in his backup center options.

“We’re really comfortable with the number of candidates we have,” Tomlin said to Steelers.com. “We’ve got some guys with real NFL experience there. Nate Herbig has been a guy who’s played center at this level. Kendrick Green is a guy who has been a starting center at this level. We’ve got a couple of other guys who are center-capable. Ryan McCollum is center-capable. Spencer Anderson is center-capable, and so we’ve probably got more depth in terms of guys who are capable and also more depth with guys with experience than I can recall.”

In an article for NFL.com, Eric Edholm tabbed Green as a guy who is both a potential cut candidate and a trade candidate. The latter suggestion is far more interesting of a possibility. Is there value for Green in the league? Regardless, Edholm’s reasoning for tabbing him as such is sound.

“The Steelers experimented with Green as a fullback this preseason, but that appears to have gone nowhere,” Edholm wrote. “In last Saturday’s game against the Bills, Green replaced Mason Cole at center and promptly fired one shotgun snap over Mason Rudolph’s head.

When asked about Green’s performance in the game, head coach Mike Tomlin got right to the point: “Not good enough. Routine things routinely is what we expect. As with Cleveland, a Green trade is possible, too. But there just doesn’t appear to be a future for him in Steeltown,”

Green could be shopped around the NFL by the Steelers. It seems like something the team will have a hard time pulling off. For a conditional 7th-round selection, that could make sense for the Steelers. It seems the inevitable divorce between Green and the Steelers will come, so if Green has any trade value, the Steelers should explore that.