NFL players are just like everybody else, with their own thoughts and opinions about the things going on around them. Sometimes we get to hear about them. Sometimes we don’t. Often enough, their opinions, even about the sport that they play, are little more valuable than the average person’s opinion. They may even be worse at times, especially if they are biased.
That is where Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Kevin Dotson was coming from when he reportedly recently said on a podcast that he doesn’t believe rookie first-round tackle Broderick Jones is going to start this season over third-year incumbent left tackle Dan Moore Jr. Asked if it was “fake news or just a really stupid opinion” in a chat session yesterday, Batko replied:
It’s not fake news, because Kevin Dotson did indeed say that on a podcast with former Steelers OL Derwin Gray. I watched and listened with my own eyes and ears. But I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, even if it is – let’s call it a naive opinion. Dotson could’ve just said nothing on the topic, but if he was gonna say anything, of course he’ll have allegiance to his buddy Dan Moore. He played with him and next to him the last two years. To me, it was more of an endorsement of his friend and teammate than a shot at Broderick Jones.
More and more, it seems, players are willing to hop onto podcasts and get more candid than perhaps their coaches—and especially their team’s PR department—might like. Having not heard the interview myself, I don’t know if Dotson said anything particularly notable beyond expressing his opinion that Moore would start over Jones, but the reality is that the battle has hardly even begun.
The Steelers drafted Jones, trading up in the first round, with the belief that he was going to become their future starting left tackle for some time. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he will start the first game of his rookie season. But he very well might.
The coaching staff is already preparing for that possibility by giving him some reps with the first-team offense during OTAs, while beginning to stretch Moore out, giving him reps at right tackle in anticipation of the eventuality of him being the swing tackle, which would require him to be able to step in and play on either side.
Dotson and Moore have been teammates, indeed, starters on the left side of the offensive line, for the past two seasons. It would only be natural for them to have a particular affinity for one another and their game.
But the Steelers felt such a need for the tackle position that they traded up to get Jones. Not unlike their pursuit of Isaac Seumalo in free agency, a move that Dotson has already acknowledged likely puts him on the bench, if not in another city.
