Kendrick Green taking Steelers OTAs reps competing with Kevin Dotson at left guard
Last year at this time, Kendrick Green was hoping to impress as a rookie to earn the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting center job. Kevin Dotson appeared entrenched as a starter at guard for years to come.
On the opening day of 2022’s organized team activities, the two were competing against each other in what coach Mike Tomlin might call a “two dogs, one bone” situation.
Green confirmed he took reps not at center but at guard, and Dotson said he and Green were each working at left guard.
“I think he pretty much knows how to play guard,” Dotson said of Green. “It’s not a thing he really has to learn too much. He just has to get out of the mindset of center, if that’s what they want him to do, so I think he is pretty much ready for that.”
Green said he hasn’t been told definitively that he permanently has been moved to guard, the position he played more in college before being a third-round draft choice last year and becoming a rookie starter at center.
Green also would not express a preference for what spot he would rather play.
“My preference,” Green said, wisely, “is Coach T’s preference.”
“Coach T” is Tomlin, who by the end of last season oversaw a starting lineup on the offensive line that featured J.C. Hassenauer at center and John Leglue at left guard.
While injuries were part of the reason why Green and Dotson lost their starting gigs, that the Steelers went out and added a pair of veteran offensive linemen in free agency — Mason Cole and James Daniels — shows they aren’t totally convinced Green and Dotson were the long-term answers.
On the first day of OTAs, Dotson confirmed Daniels was the first-team right guard and Cole the No. 1 center.
On Tuesday, Dotson was saying he feels more comfortable at right guard than on the left and Green expressed he has more comfort at guard than center.
Until or unless something changes, and plenty can between the first day of OTAs and when the regular season opens Sept. 11, only one will be starting for the Steelers in 2022. And he will be starting at left guard.
“It’s kind of new offense. We are all kind of rotating, taking reps here and there, so just kind of all trying to get a feel over who is going to be where,” Green said.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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