PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – When Mike Tomlin said publicly on Sunday guard Kevin Dotson had done nothing to earn first-team reps. That he was a second-year guy who hadn’t worked.
Unlike maybe what you would expect, Dotson took it in stride.
“I think it was just a statement,” Dotson said Tuesday. “I just legit haven’t done anything. There is nothing to look at for my body of work. I have not practiced once except for yesterday and it was kind of a half practice. He wasn’t lying.”
“It read differently on Twitter. If you don’t get how he said it, reading it sounds worse than it really is.”
Dotson is behind, admitting he hurt his ankle during the first practice of camp. It required a couple of PRP shots and it’s been a slow process of getting back to where he finally feels like he’s near 100%. Now finally back to full-go in practices.
“In the locker room and in the facility people are asking me ‘are you alright’, ‘are you ok’?” Dotson said. “They are doing that every day. It gets to the point where people think I’m dragging it on.”
“It makes me want to come back earlier, even though I know I’m really hurt. It’s one of the most frustrating things. You have to be smart about it.”
While currently on the second team behind free agent signee Rashaad Coward, Dotson believes there is enough time to win that starting job. There is a month before the start of the season.
“I feel like I can catch up,” Dotson said. “It was an ankle injury that kept lingering. It’s one of those things where you don’t want to go out there and hurt it more. I don’t want to hurt our reputation. If I’m hurt and you put me up against Cam (Heyward), it’s going to look worse. I took as much (time) as I could to get right.”
While they haven’t been on the field together due to various injuries, he said the potential starting offensive line gathers after practice. They pay attention to positioning in game situations on film. Visualizing where they would be in regards to the defense, even studying the defenses of the first few opponents.
He also leans on veteran Trai Turner, who signed on June 25. Dotson said Turner’s really attempted to help his game.
“He’s pretty much like a mentor to me right now,” Dotson said. “And he’s from Louisiana, so we have that bond already. He’s a cool guy. He’s not a guy that’s going to hold anything over you. He is going to teach you his tricks to his trade because he wants everyone to win. I’m really happy that we got him.”
So now Dotson works to get back in the starting lineup. He says you have to earn that opportunity, not just this season, but going forward.
“I think they go year-by-year,” Dotson said of team decisions. “It’s more of a ‘what have you done for me lately’ type of thing. You can’t really go off somebody’s last year. You have to see what they are doing this year.”
“I still have to prove myself. I’m not a number one proven guy.”
Refreshing, an athlete that accepts the challenge and works to fix it instead of complaining about the situation.