The Pittsburgh Steelers signed Kendrick Green shortly before drafting Dan Moore Jr. in the 2021 NFL Draft. Moore is entering his contract year and will likely keep his starting spot for now, while the Steelers traded Green last year after losing his starting spot long ago.
Now Moore is preparing to work with another rookie center the Steelers are adding to the starting lineup: Zach Frazier. He was drafted in the second round and is the last man standing after Nate Herbig suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. Moore understands how tough that is – especially for his draft classmate Green.
“He was in an unfortunate situation,” Moore told Brooke Pryor recently for ESPN about Kendrick Green. “He was a guard in college and then had to make the transition to center and be the man from Day 1. That’s obviously a difficult task and it really hurt his development. We had to skip a lot of things in the process just to get him ready for Week 1 and that sped up his development a little bit so he didn’t really get to learn the little nuances and techniques that a center might have to learn.”
Kendrick Green, a third-round pick out of Illinois, started the first 15 games of his rookie season before suffering an injury. He was not expected to play another snap for the Steelers and spent 2022 as a healthy backup. Almost as a distraction, they experimented with making him a fullback last year before trading him away.
The Steelers sent Green to the Houston Texans in late August and faced him in October. He played well in that game but then suffered a season-ending injury – at guard, of course. When he came to Texans training camp in the best shape of his life, he was fighting for a spot in the starting lineup. From what I’ve read, however, it doesn’t sound like he’s made much progress. In fact, I see him as a potential transfer candidate again.
Moore obviously has some empathy for Kendrick Green, having been in the same class as him. They both started as rookies and played earlier and more than they should have. Moore was supposed to be the swing tackle, but an injury derailed the Steelers’ plans. And as for Green, well – they should have just used JC Hassenauer.
But Moore knows that Zach Frazier, with his extensive playing experience and center background as a rookie coming in and playing from Day 1, has a clear advantage over Green. “The fact that Zach has played center 37 times in college already helps the coaches a lot in not having to coach him as much. He just understands the position a little bit better,” he said. Or, you know, a lot more.
