Right before roster cutdown day, the Pittsburgh Steelers traded Kevin Dotson to the Los Angeles Rams for draft pick upgrades in 2024 and 2025. The Steelers received a fourth-round pick in 2024 and a fifth-round pick in 2025, while giving up a 2024 fifth and a 2025 sixth. Those picks could potentially be 50-pick upgrades with the Steelers trending upwards and the Rams being stuck in limbo after the worst Super Bowl hangover in NFL history. Despite all that, Rams General Manager, Les Snead is still happy to have his new lineman.
Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (Twitter: JSKO_Photo)
Steelers left guard Kevin Dotson has acknowledged that he will lose his left guard job to free agent signing Isaac Seumalo.
Los Angeles has been looking to try and rebuild their offensive line ever since Andrew Whitworth retired after their Super Bowl victory. Even though they haven't done a good job of that due to lack of cap space and draft capital, they're still looking for what they can do, and this trade could help them get started on the rebuild. Snead was paying attention to the Steelers throughout the 2023 offseason, so he knew that he could get some offensive line help from them after the great offseason they had.
“They drafted a good bit of OL. They signed some in unrestricted free agency so you did know that they had a surplus of OL who had played in NFL games and with the draftees coming in. They were a team that we targeted initially to monitor if we ever wanted to go in that direction."
Five of the nine offensive linemen that made it to the Steelers initial 53-man roster were not on the 2022 team at all. They especially loaded up at guard by signing Isaac Seumalo and Nate Herbig to go along with James Daniels elite 2022 campaign. They also drafted Spencer Anderson, who could be used as a utility man that can potentially play every position on the line. With those four on the team, Dotson had to fight for his spot on the roster, and it didn't work out.
Erik Drost
Steelers guard Kevin Dotson is encouraged by the communication over the bye week. Photo By Erik Drost – Wikimedia Commons
As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. With the Steelers having a surprising amount of offensive line depth, Dotson's name was floating around in trade rumors, and the Rams were a team that needed new faces on their line. Of course, there's a lot more to the trade than "just a new guy." Snead has been paying attention to a lot more than the offseason acquisitions.
“I think that it started with he’s been a starter in Pittsburgh...obviously you turn on the tape, you play the Pittsburgh (Steelers), they’re a fun team to watch. Their linemen play with an element of toughness, they like to run the ball, they like to go north and south. He’s a bigger player that helps in anchoring, especially in the pocket."
A lot of what Snead described about the Steelers comes from Andy Weidl's philosophy of building in the trenches and winning there. That philosophy is also what made Dotson available in the first place, since they loaded up on all those new offensive linemen to keep building it up, and the philosophy helped the Steelers get the return that they got for him.
Tim Tai / The Philadelphia Inquirer via Associated Press
Steelers assistant general manager Andy Weidl continues to implement an imprint used with the Eagles.
Steelers Almost Traded Dotson Before The End Of The Preseason
While the Steelers offensive line looked good in preseason, those games were not the deciding factor. In fact, from what Snead said, it almost sounds like they agreed to trade him during the preseason, but the Steelers wanted to make sure everything went according to plan before shipping him off.
"We’ve tried to trade for him most of the preseason. They wanted to hold onto him to make sure that they got through preseason healthy and didn’t necessarily need him and still have the surplus that we thought they might have."
Luckily for both sides, the Steelers offensive line was healthy all throughout training camp and preseason games, making it easier for the Steelers to trade him away. After many weeks of waiting, the Steelers decided that they would be better off with the extra draft picks than keeping Dotson as a backup that might not see any playing time in 2023. Dotson can now go to a team where he'll get playing time like he did in 2022 for the Steelers. All parties involved have benefitted from the deal, and the Rams are very excited about their end of the deal.
What do you think about Les Snead's comments on Kevin Dotson and the Steelers? Let us know down in the comments.
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