The Steelers are well into their offseason after failing to reach the playoffs in 2022, coming up just a game short of sneaking in as the seventh seed. They needed help in week 18 and only got some of it, so instead they sat home and watched the playoffs with the rest of us.
On tap is figuring out how to be on the field in January and February instead of being a spectator. They started out 2-6, digging a hole that proved too deep to dig out of even if they managed to go 7-2 in the second half of the year.
Starting from the end of the regular season and leading all the way up to the beginning of the 2023 season, there are plenty of questions that need answered, starting with who will be the offensive coordinator. Which free agents will be kept? Who might be let go due to their salary? How might they tackle free agency with this new front office? How might they tackle the 2023 NFL Draft? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout this offseason, as we have for many years.
Question: All things being equal, would Kevin Dotson be a better backup guard than Nate Herbig?
Quite a number of Steelers fans seem to have gained an impulse to usher Kevin Dotson off the team this offseason, perhaps tempted by the prospect of getting something back for him via trade. After the team signed Isaac Seumalo to take over his starting job—which Dotson himself essentially acknowledged—his elevated year-four salary becomes a bit tougher to digest as a guard-only reserve.
And of course they also signed Nate Herbig to be a backup as well, and one would imagine that they had every intention of carrying Herbig on the roster this season when they signed him to a two-year contract—even if it did come before the Seumalo deal.
But let’s put this discussion into a vacuum. Disregard salaries and long-term futures, focus only on the fundamental question at hand: would Dotson be a better backup guard than Herbig? I think it’s a question very much worth considering later this year when the final 53-man roster is being assembled.
Dotson was an immediate fan favorite when first drafted. A natural Steelers fan labeled as a big, road-grading guard coming out of college, he hasn’t exactly turned into that—his strength has actually been in pass protection—but he did turn into a starter. Or at least a player who has started 30 games. That’s more than Herbig has started, and the latter has been in the league a year longer.
If Dotson is the better backup guard this season, as in the player you would rather have spot starting for Seumalo or James Daniels if either are injured, then you have to seriously entertain the idea of carrying him on the 53-man roster, regardless of his salary or the odds of him leaving in free agency.
And I think a strong case can be made that he would be the better backup. When you can dress eight linemen, you can have a backup guard and a backup center, so position flexibility is much less of a problem than it used to be.
