SCB Steelers Quick Hitters: The “Dotson Dilemma” Edition

June 29, 2021

Good Tuesday to you Steelers fans.

It’s real simple. Either you believe what Dejan Kovacevic said about Steelers’ Guard Kevin Dotson or you believe Kevin Dotson himself. There is however a third option here. Both could have elements of the truth. If you’re wondering what in the hell I’m talking about then let me explain. On the “DK on Pittsburgh Sports Podcast” Kovacevic claimed that according to his sources “Dotson did not meet the Steelers’ standards for off-season work.” He then went on to say that the team bringing in so many guards this off-season was in part due to their uncertainty about Dotson. From DK’s side, maybe there is some truth. We are all still wondering why Dotson didn’t get the start over Matt Feiler in the playoffs. Did his work ethic and preparedness have something to do with that? DK certainly has people to speak to in the form of Ramon Foster and Dale Lolley. Whether he has a direct line to someone with the team I cannot say. From Dotson’s perspective the whole thing is BS and he was obviously not buying it and neither was the guy he has exclusively trained with.

Y’all ask em y’all self. People I train and trained with know I work 😂😂🤷🏿‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/byrx1LslkF

— 🌚 6iG9asty🕺🏿😈 (@kdd7696) June 28, 2021

NFL building’s are home to some of the most toxic & ego driven people there are, and 99%, of the aforementioned, are NOT players

That being said, @kdd7696 is one of the hardest workers I’ve had the chance to work with & he keeps a chip on his shoulder handling business https://t.co/Aam7vUhbSh

— Duke Manyweather (@BigDuke50) June 28, 2021

Here’s my opinion. I understand the demands on a site like DK’s. He poured his life and a lot of money into it. The pressure to drive clicks is immense. His life changes drastically if DK on Pittsburgh Sports stops functioning. The same can’t be said for me. I love doing this, have met amazing people and had awesome opportunities but if SCB ended today I’d be OK. Am I suggesting that DK maybe stretched things a bit here? Yes I am but I also think there has to be something here. That “something” however doesn’t change the fact that Dotson was overwhelmingly the best O-lineman throughout OTAs. I believe someone made a comment about what Dotson could be better at and DK went with it. If Dotson isn’t the starting left guard week one and is healthy then this story will be re-visited. For now, I’m all in on Team Dotson.

A Word on Analytics

While Peter “Patriot” King is on vacation, he’s had a different writer each week do his “Football Morning in America” piece over at profootballtalk.com. This week is longtime NFL Films man Greg Cosell who offered up this about the role of analytics in pro football. How about this for an in-game situation, purely hypothetical for purposes of discussion—it’s fourth and 2 in the third quarter on your opponent’s 42-yard line. A 10-year study of that down and distance on that part of the field indicates that teams that go for it are successful 76 percent of the time. So the analytics/statistics strongly suggest that you should go for the first down. But how does what happened in the past have any relevance to this specific situation in this given game, and if you believe it does, then what’s the personnel group, the play call. What goes into the play call? Your starting LG got hurt, and you’re playing with a backup at the position. How does that factor in? Is that part of analytics, because now we are getting into the process of a critical play call in a specific moment in time, and not simply previous outcomes and mathematical equations. Cosell brings up some really good points here that I believe often go without consideration.