LA Rams IOL Kevin Dotson plans to shock the NFL in Week 7, and he will

The LA Rams front office certainly has a lot to process to prepare and restock the Rams roster in time for Week 7 and the Pittsburgh Steelers. But the front office certainly did their homework when it came to vetting newly acquired veteran free agent IOL Kevin Dotson. And so far, it shows.

After the LA Rams were unable to coax second-year interior offensive lineman Logan Bruss to a level of NFL play this offseason, that created a vacuum in the Rams' plans for the offensive line. The Rams wanted to go with a line that was made up of their best five players. But after all of the mixing and matching, the Rams settled in on four starters: LT Alaric Jackson, LG Steve Avila, C Coleman Shelton, and RT Rob Havenstein.

The right guard position was a bitty murky, as the Rams had trialed a number of players for the spot. While Tremayne Anchrum Jr. felt like the most obvious choice, the Rams coaching staff continued to comment that Joe Noteboom was redirected from competing for the starting left tackle spot to the right guard role.

Rams trade for Dotson, to back up Noteboom?

Just as the Rams were finalizing their 53-man roster, the team traded a 2024 Round 4 and a 2025 Round 5 draft pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for IOL Kevin Dotson, and a 2024 Round 5 and a 2026 Round 6 draft pick. At the time, it was presumed that the stalemate at right guard would be broken by the newly acquired Dotson.

Dotson was a wise choice for the LA Rams roster. While he had been demoted this year on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster, he had a fine NFL career so far. In three seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dotson played in 39 games, and started 30. And his grades for blocking were very good, both at run and pass blocking.

The Rams had struggled with offensive guards in the past. That was partly the fault of a draft strategy to select NCAA collegiate football tackles, but move them inwards to the offensive guard position when the arrived to the Rams roster.

Dotson's journey was anything but a straight line to start for Rams

1. Rams offensive line version of musical chairs
2. Rams trades seem to target peace of mind, and not football field production
3. Guess who's back?