Headaches hamper TE Green
Tight end Ladarius Green, the Steelers’ premier free agent signing this year, remains unable to even practice because of lingering headaches that might be the effects of concussions he had when playing for the San Diego Chargers.
Sources told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the headaches and not his January ankle surgery is what has kept Green on the physically unable to perform list, essentially sidelining him since the day he signed a four-year, $20 million contract with the Steelers in March. The deal included a $4.75 million signing bonus that the team might be able to recoup if Green is unable to play.
He remains in the Steelers’ concussion protocol, a source said.
The Steelers signed Green one month after Heath Miller retired. Green never told the Steelers that he was having issues with headaches when they signed him, a source said. They knew about the January surgery, when he reportedly had two metal plates inserted into his ankle.
Green, 26, did not practice in the spring, ostensibly because of the ankle surgery. After he reported July 28 to training camp at Saint Vincent College, the Steelers placed him on the physically unable to perform list, which means he had an injury or physical problem the team deemed serious enough that he was not ready to practice.
He has been running on another field adjacent to the Steelers practice field while his new teammates have gone through drills over the past two weeks in Latrobe. It was largely assumed that his ankle was the issue, but a source says it has healed enough for him to participate.
“His ankle is fine,’’ his agent, Adisa Bakari, told NFL.com.
Green, a fourth-round draft pick by San Diego from Louisiana-Lafayette in 2012, represented a different type of tight end for the Steelers as they looked to replace Miller. At 6-foot6, he is fast and mostly a receiver for a position the Steelers often required to block as well. He caught 77 passes and averaged 14.1 yards per catch in his four seasons, mostly as a backup, with the Chargers. He started 11 games last season, but had two concussions in two weeks in September and also had one in week 14 in 2014.