After a subpar season in 2022 and the signing of guard Isaac Seumalo, the Pittsburgh Steelers shipped guard Kevin Dotson to the Los Angeles Rams in late August. The former fourth-round pick by Pittsburgh has been a revelation for the Rams this season, and he’s currently graded as the best guard in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus.
With Dotson spending the last three seasons in Pittsburgh, James Daniels, who’s been with the Steelers the last two seasons, expects the Rams to ask Dotson for advice on how to beat the Steelers’ offensive line.
“If we had someone on our D-line who was with the Rams, I would be in his ear all week,” Daniels said Thursday via 93.7 The Fan. “I definitely would see them asking, ‘Where are they looking here? Where are they doing this?’ If the roles were reversed, I would be asking that.”
There’s only so much information a team can glean from a former player, because things change week to week, even play to play, and the Steelers might not be doing the same things offensively as they were with Dotson. But it makes sense for the Rams to use every resource they have to find ways to beat Pittsburgh, and Dotson’s familiarity with the team makes him a good one.
Like Daniels said, if the Steelers had a former Rams defensive lineman on their roster, they’d ask him questions about how the team plays and schemes things up in certain situations. It’s a natural thing that occurs in the NFL, and the Steelers’ defensive line will also have a little bit of an advantage because a lot of those guys have gone up against Dotson in practices.
It’s not anything that’s going to make a huge difference in the game, but it’s good knowledge to have. Obviously, just like the info the Rams get from Dotson might not be current, Dotson has looked like a completely different player in Los Angeles than he was in Pittsburgh. So just because he might have been a player with certain tendencies in Pittsburgh doesn’t mean that’s the same deal now through seven weeks with the Rams.
For what it’s worth, neither the Pittsburgh offensive line nor the Los Angeles offensive line has performed particularly well, with both ranking toward the bottom of the league, per PFF’s offensive line rankings. The game might come down to who can do a better job creating running lanes and keeping their quarterback upright.
That will be no easy task for either team with Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt in Pittsburgh and Aaron Donald in Los Angeles.
