The importance of veteran leaders and mentors to an NFL rookie is incredible. Ben Roethlisberger had Tommy Maddox and Charlie Batch. Ryan Shazier had Lawrence Timmons. In his Hall of Fame induction speech Saturday, Troy Polamalu explicitly thanked Mike Logan, the veteran safety whom he was drafted to replace in the starting line, for his leadership and teaching during Polamalu’s rookie season.
Kendrick Green nearly didn’t have that with the Steelers this year as a rookie. Drafted in the third round and thrusted into the lineup as the team’s starting center, Green was centering an offensive line where only one projected starter had experience as a full-time starter — and Chukwuma Okorafor has only last season in that role.