It can be hard for interior defensive linemen to get recognition, as a lot of the time, their job is to plug the middle and let their teammates make plays. For former Kentucky and Auburn DL Justin Rogers, who’s primary job was to two-gap and eat up blockers in college, that was certainly the case. But for Rogers, it’s not about the glory and the numbers, as he knows if his teammates are making plays, he’s doing his job. In an interview at the East-West Shrine Bowl, Rogers talked about his play style, his transition to Auburn and some of his former teammates who he’s learning from.
“You gotta know you gotta take up two. You gotta know you ain’t gonna make all the plays. But at the end of the day, if your linebackers making plays, that means you’re making plays. And so that’s how I look at stuff. I just look at stuff as whatever’s best for the team. If that’s me taking up two, I’m going to take up two.”
Rogers played three seasons at Kentucky before transferring to Auburn. A former top-100 recruit, Rogers had to sit and learn at first from his teammates at Kentucky, some of whom went on to play in the NFL.
“Just learning from the older guys,” Rogers said about adjusting to college as a top recruit. “I had two guys in front of me that played in the NFL, Marquan McCall and Quinton Bohanna, and those guys were standing in front of me, so it was just learning from them and just waiting my time. I just had to wait.”
While Auburn and Kentucky are both in the SEC, Auburn is in the SEC West, which provides better competition than the SEC East. Rogers talked about how much he enjoyed playing a high-level opponent nearly every week.
“Definitely just the different culture, change. Playing at Texas A&M, Arkansas, having Alabama come to Auburn. So it was a great experience this whole season.”
One game that might not have been a great experience was the Iron Bowl against Alabama, a game Auburn had a chance to win until Alabama threw a touchdown pass on 4th and 31 with 32 seconds left to put Alabama ahead 27-24, which would be the final score. Still, Rogers enjoyed the experience of playing in the game, but he feels like they let the Auburn faithful down.
“Just playing in that game, it tops every game I ever played in college. This game means more than anything in Auburn. They don’t care if you have a losing season, you gotta win that game. I feel like we let the Auburn family down for that one, it was kind of tough,” Rogers said.
Off the field, Rogers has an Instagram account for his dog, Chewy, and he talked about how much he loves his dog. With Cameron Heyward gifting dogs to Larry Ogunjobi and Alex Highsmith for Christmas the last two years, Rogers will surely find some companionship if he does end up with the Steelers over the defense’s mutual love of dogs.
Rogers will take part in the NFL Combine later this month, and he’ll look to raise his draft stock there. While he doesn’t offer a ton of pass rush juice (four career sacks), Rogers’ attitude and team-first mentality could appeal to the Steelers if they address the interior defensive line. He was a super humble guy and a lot of fun to talk to, and his experience learning from his teammates who know what it’s like to play in the league and his team-first attitude will surely help him make it with whatever team he ends up with
