There isn’t much else to do while we sit here and wait for news about whether or not there will even be training camp, so it seems as good a time as any to bring back this series, in which we look to introduce some of the new players that the Pittsburgh Steelers have added to the mix since the end of the 2019 season.
The team added some notable pieces in free agency, which was important, because they didn’t have much to work with in terms of draft capital due to previous trades. They also made liberal use of the XFL’s closure, signing about as many players from there as the rest of the league combined. Even while claiming that they didn’t have a lot of roster room, they still signed a good number of rookie college free agents as well, enough that they had to release three players just to make room for them.
The Steelers used three of their four picks within the first four rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft to address the offensive side of the ball, first taking a wide receiver, then a running back, and rounding things out with an offensive lineman, with their second pick in the fourth round.
That was Kevin Dotson, a product of Louisiana-Lafayette, who as a non-Combine invitee this year but managed, thanks to the Steelers, to be the first such player off the board. Having grown up a Steelers fan, needless to say, he was pretty happy about that.
Though he hasn’t even been in Pittsburgh yet since being drafted (at least as far as I’m aware, to be clear), he has already become something of a fan favorite, not just because of his proven fandom history, but also because of the way that he carries himself.
Before the draft, he already got some air time for himself, going viral for demonstrating one of his quarantine workouts—pulling a truck up the street. He is, indeed, a powerful young man, and it’s no surprise that his strength is in run blocking.
As he has said multiple times since being drafted, he had a habit in college of tipping plays—purposely. He told reporters that, when he’s really in his game, he will occasionally tell the man across from him where the play is going to go, because he knows that he will beat him anyway. He says this demoralizes his opponents, when they know they can’t stop you even when they know exactly what you’re going to do to them.
That’s the kind of stuff that will endear you to fans—more than to your coaches.
Ostensibly, Dotson will be in the mix to compete at left guard with Matt Feiler and free agent Stefen Wisniewski, though it’s fair to say it’s highly unlikely he’s going to start. Right now, he can only be regarded as a one-position player, so if Wisniewski is not starting, he may not even dress for games, depending on if there is a ninth lineman, who that lineman is with respect to position versatility.
