The Center Nobody is Talking About is a Perfect Fit for the Eagles

Illinois' Kendrick Green was a first-team All-Big Ten Conference guard and has also played center, making him a solid developmental prospect for when Jason Kelce calls it a career

He’s the center nobody seems to be talking about, lost in the swirl of conversation about Creed Humphrey, Landon Dickerson, Trey Hill, and even Josh Myers, but Kendrick Green may very well fit what the Eagles need.

He’s more than just a center, actually. The University of Illinois product also played during his time in Champagne. A former high school wrestling standout at Peoria High, he started 33 straight games for the Illini, bouncing between center and guard.

He played well enough to earn first-team All-Big Ten Conference honors this past season at guard. For the record, Myers was second-team center behind Iowa’s Tyler Linderbaum.

Yet, Green isn’t mentioned much when it comes to being a second-day draft pick, which means he could be in the Eagles’ wheelhouse in the fifth round, or even the fourth should GM Howie Roseman figure out a way how to get one of those.

“I don’t really pay attention to that stuff too much, try not to,” said Green on Tuesday, the day before he will participate at Illinois’ Pro Day as an invited member of the NFL Scouting Combine that isn’t being held this year due to the pandemic.

“I feel like the league knows me, just from hearing around, I think I’ll be in a good situation coming into this draft, but yeah, I have a chip on my shoulder for sure.”

The Draft Network called Green “a developmental center” that could become a starter but one who, right now, is “rough around the edges with the finer points of strike placement, feel for scraping defenders, angles when climbing to the second level, and his footwork and base."

A developmental center, one most experts believe is a third-day pick, one who can fill in at guard, too, is just what the Eagles need.

Jason Kelce isn’t going to play forever.

What better way to develop than to learn from someone like Kelce, who sounded more and more like a coach on each Zoom call during last season?

What better way to develop than to have Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland take you under his wing?

Green had to win some Eagles points when asked which interior O-lineman he watches most at the NFL level. Bucs offensive tackle Ryan Jensen, a sixth-round pick, was one name he said and so was Kelce, another sixth-round pick.

“Jensen plays nasty, plays hard, plays to the whistle, finishes guys, and imposes his will,” said Green. “Jason Kelce is a great athlete, plays out in space. … There’s quite a few interior linemen in the league I really like.”

Green brings athleticism and a mean streak to the game, packed into a 6-4, 315-pound frame. 

He played three sports in high school – football, wrestling, and baseball. On the mat, he was an Illinois state semifinalist and would have been in the state final had he been able to beat the wrestler he had just beaten a week earlier in the state’s regional final.

“I wrestled all four years of high school varsity, starting heavyweight as a freshman,” he said. “Should’ve been a state champ. I think that wrestling definitely helps playing in the trenches, hand placement, leverage, positioning your body, feeling when off balance or out of position. I feel it every play in football, so that’s key.”

Green arrived at Illinois as a defensive tackle, but head coach Lovie Smith suggested he move over to the offensive line, and Green’s career took off from there.

“People are asking me about how I feel playing defensive tackle, I tell them they’re making a mistake because I’m pretty bad at it,” said Green. “Obviously, I struggled with technique a little bit at first, but at the end of the day, I think I know football pretty well so I picked up scheme and things like that pretty quickly.”

Pro Football Focus gives Green a fourth-round grade and lists him as their 112th best player overall, pointing out that he led all Power Five linemen with “big-time blocks” despite playing just eight games.

“His tape is littered with high-level plays,” wrote PFF’s Michael Renner, “and not only of the pancake variety but also in sheer difficulty of assignment. He flies out of his stance.”

Green is considered an excellent run blocker, one who excels particularly in a zone-style run scheme, which is what the Eagles are expected to continue using under new coach Nick Sirianni.

He has to work on pass protection, but, hey, he wouldn’t start anyway until Kelce hangs it up.

“I just want to show the NFL I’m a dependable guy, a durable guy,” said Green. “If a team drafts me, I want to slide myself in and be in the starting lineup and the organization won’t have to worry about that position for years down the line. That’s what I want to bring to the table.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.


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Ed Kracz
ED KRACZ

Ed Kracz has been covering the Eagles full-time for over a decade and has written about Philadelphia sports since 1996. He wrote about the Phillies in the 2008 and 2009 World Series, the Flyers in their 2010 Stanely Cup playoff run to the finals, and was in Minnesota when the Eagles secured their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2017. Ed has received multiple writing awards as a sports journalist, including several top-five finishes in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards.