The Alabama pro day will take place on Tuesday and the Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to be heavily represented at it. Ahead of the pro day taking place, however, media interviews were conducted Monday with several Alabama players that are draft hopefuls and center Landon Dickerson was one of them. Dickerson said during his Monday media session that he has talked with the Steelers so far during the pre-draft process.
Dickerson, who is still recovering from surgery to repair a knee injury he suffered late last season, said Monday he doesn’t expect to do much of anything during Alabama’s pro day, which isn’t surprising at all. The fact that the Steelers have some level of interest in Dickerson isn’t overly surprising as the team is likely to draft a center this year on the heels of center Maurkice Pouncey retiring earlier in the offseason.
“Yeah, interior offensive line wise, it’s not a great group in terms of the high-end guys,” NFL Network draft analysts Daniel Jeremiah said concerning an offensive lineman fit for the Steelers in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft a few weeks ago. “If you wanted to take a little bit of a risk, Landon Dickerson from Alabama. If he didn’t tear his ACL towards the end of the year and didn’t have some other injury concerns during his time at Florida State, I think he’d be — he almost is a perfect Steeler. He is physical and nasty. He’s fun to watch. He’s quick. He’s a taller guy. He’s 6’6″, 326 pounds, but we’ve seen the Steelers coming off a pretty good run here with a tall center, so he’d be a great fit provided he could be okay with the medical stuff.”
Dickerson, who also did not play in this year’s Senior Bowl due to his knee injury, did measure in at 6060, 326-pounds in Mobile, AL. with 32 1/2-inch arms and 10 3/8-inch hands. He was the 2020 winner of the Rimington Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation’s top center and a semifinalist for the Outland Trophy. He was also a unanimous first team All-American in 2020 and earned first-team All-SEC honors from both the Associated Press and league coaches.
While Dickerson primarily played center the last three seasons at Alabama and Florida State, he did log snaps at all five positions on the offensive line during that span with his second most amount of playing time coming at right guard. Alex Kozora has already done a profile on Dickerson for the site as well and you can read it by following the link below. If not for Dickerson’s knee injury and previous injury history, he’d probably be a slam-dunk first-round selection for some team, or at worst, the first center selected this year. Those medical concerns are pretty big, however, and especially this year thanks to the scouting issues created by the ongoing pandemic.
