Kevin
Dotson.
Kevin
Dotson.
Louisiana
"Fifty-two starts and a first-team All-American season at Louisiana from a guard who moves people rather than moving himself — the power was never the question, the level of competition was."Pre-draft read
Dotson is a 6-4, 321-pound guard who plays the position like a demolition contractor. He is a genuine people-mover in the run game, generating displacement off the snap with heavy hands and a wide, powerful base, and he finishes blocks through the whistle rather than around them.
He is at his best on down blocks and in short-yardage, where his leverage and grip strength let him uproot a defensive tackle and drive him off the spot. He is not fluid in space, and that is the honest limit: a narrow athletic margin on pulls and screens, and quick interior rushers can win before his hands land. Pass protection is a sit-and-anchor operation rather than a mirroring one. The signature is raw, sustained power at the point.
A gap and power run scheme that pulls its tackles rather than its guards and asks the interior to win one-on-one displacement at the line of scrimmage.
Year 1 swing interior lineman and short-yardage specialist, with a ceiling as a top-five run-blocking guard who starts for a decade.
An outside-zone offense that asks its guards to reach defenders laterally and climb to linebackers in space on nearly every run.
Kevin Dotson drives defender back on run block against Appalachian State (2019)
Single-rep clip of the displacement power that defined his college tape.
Steelers OG Kevin Dotson Is A People Mover In The Run Game
Film breakdown of the run-blocking traits that carried over to the NFL.
Dotson arrived at Louisiana in 2015, redshirted, and then started for four straight years without missing a beat. By the time he played his last college snap in the LendingTree Bowl against Miami of Ohio, he had made 52 career starts, the second-most by any offensive lineman in the country in 2019.
The senior year was as decorated as a Sun Belt lineman's year can get. He started all fourteen games and was named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Pro Football Focus, with Sporting News putting him on the second team. He became only the second player in school history to earn AP All-America honors, the first ever to be first-team by those other outlets. He was first-team All-Sun Belt in both 2018 and 2019 after second-team honors in 2017 and an all-newcomer selection in 2016. He blocked for an offense that finished third nationally in yards per carry at 6.28, fourth in rushing touchdowns and sixth in rushing yards per game, on a line that ranked fifth nationally in sacks allowed.
The board discounted the level of competition and the athletic testing. The power and the production were obvious; the questions were about NFL quickness and pass-pro technique. Pittsburgh, a team that has always valued maulers, took him at 135.
- 01
Elite run-blocking power
A true people-mover who generates displacement at the point and helped Louisiana finish third nationally at 6.28 yards per carry.
- 02
Grip and hand strength
Once he latches, defenders do not get off the block, and he finishes with an aggression that shows up on every rep of tape.
- 03
Four-year durability
Fifty-two career starts, the second-most by any offensive lineman in the country in 2019, with no significant missed time.
- 04
Decorated production
First-team All-American by the AP, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Pro Football Focus, the first in his program's history to earn those honors.
- 05
Pass-protection anchor
Played on a line that ranked fifth nationally in sacks allowed, and he rarely loses ground once he sets his base against power.
- 01
Limited lateral quickness
A heavy-footed mover who struggles to reach defenders on wide zone and can be beaten by interior rushers with a quick first step.
- 02
Movement in space
Not comfortable pulling or climbing to the second level, which narrows the run concepts a coordinator can call with him.
- 03
Level of competition
Sun Belt tape against defensive linemen who were often outmatched physically before the snap even happened.
- 04
Pass sets
Sits and anchors rather than mirrors, so quickness-based rushers and games can get him off balance before his hands arrive.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Louisiana | — |
| 2017 | Louisiana | — |
| 2018 | Louisiana | — |
| 2019 | Louisiana | 14 |
| Career | — | 14 |
The 2019 line and the career start total come from the Louisiana athletics bio, which notes he made his 52nd career start in the LendingTree Bowl against Miami of Ohio, the second-most by any offensive lineman in the country that season. Season-by-season games and starts for 2016 through 2018 were not published there and are left empty rather than estimated. He redshirted in 2015.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A functional interior starter who plays a few hundred snaps a year and holds a job without standing out.
The ceiling: a powerful interior mauler who becomes a Pro Bowl guard and a decade-long starter.
A decorated college lineman whose athletic limits and injuries keep him from ever settling into a starting job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Dotson became one of the best value picks in the round, though it took a change of address. He played thirteen games with four starts as a rookie in 2020, then started all nine games in 2021 before landing on injured reserve, then started all seventeen in 2022 with more than 1,100 offensive snaps. Pittsburgh still traded him to the Rams before the 2023 season.
Los Angeles is where he became a star. He started fourteen games in 2023 and finished with the sixth-best offensive grade and eighth-best run-blocking grade among all offensive linemen at Pro Football Focus, was the highest-graded guard in the league through Week 10, and made PFF second-team All-Pro and the PFF101. He started all sixteen games in 2024, then in 2025 started all fifteen he played and ranked third among guards in both offensive grade and run-blocking grade, with the best grades of any lineman in the divisional round. Through seven seasons he had started 76 of 85 games. In hindsight the fourth round badly underrated him. The scouting reports were right that he is a mauler rather than a mover; they were wrong that it would cap him.