With Houston Texans OG Kenyon Green suffering a shoulder injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the season per Ian Rapoport, former Pittsburgh Steelers C Kendrick Green will start at LG for the Texans.
Kenyon Green was on thin ice as Houston’s starter, as the team was considering starting Kendrick Green prior to the team’s Week 9 Thursday Night Football matchup against the New York Jets, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 in Houston. With Kenyon now out for the season, the team will turn to someone who they considered starting ahead of him.
The Steelers drafted Kendrick Green in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft in an attempt to replace Maurkice Pouncey at center, but Kendrick’s stint in Pittsburgh went poorly, starting 15 games before being benched. He wouldn’t play another game for the Steelers before being traded to the Texans ahead of the 2023 season, and he played four games with three starts for Houston last season before suffering a season-ending injury.
He’s appeared in all nine games for the Texans this season, but has played just 66 offensive snaps, with the majority coming last night when he came in to replace Kenyon Green. Kendrick Green said he didn’t think he played enough to knock the rust off prior to being thrown into the game last night, where QB C.J. Stroud was sacked a career-high eight times.
“Didn’t play well enough. Clearly, score shows that, too. Definitely some plays I left out there, just felt like I needed kinda to get the rust off. But, you gotta be ready when your number’s called, and I tried to do the best I could, but it wasn’t good enough,” Kendrick said via Wilson on Twitter.
#Texans guard Kendrick Green on being inserted into game when Kenyon Green injured his shoulder and the breakdowns that led to C.J. Stroud being sacked career high eight times @KPRC2 ‘Didn’t play enough clearly got to get the rust off got to be ready when your number is called pic.twitter.com/jsTM4uAtpl
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) November 1, 2024
Kendrick Green must play better than he did last night, and Houston could look for additional guard depth ahead of the NFL Trade Deadline on Tuesday. The loss dropped the Texans to 6-3, which benefits the Steelers, who at 6-2 gained some ground on Houston in the AFC standings. The Steelers do not play the Texans this season, but Pittsburgh will have a difficult second half of their schedule with all six divisional games still on the slate. But last night’s game definitely was beneficial for Pittsburgh, and we’ll see if Kendrick Green can turn things around for Houston going forward.