(Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
Pro Football Focus has been releasing their rankings for the top 32 players at each position lately and on Monday they revealed their guard rankings, which had two Steelers on the list.
Veteran David DeCastro was ranked 15th and Kevin Dotson, who's entering his second year, was ranked 29th. DeCastro is a six-time Pro Bowler and has been named first-team All-Pro twice, but he had a down year last season as he was hampered by injuries. DeCastro is also 31, so he's getting up there in age.
"DeCastro is still a very good player, but at his best, he was arguably the best right guard in football, and that is no longer the case without a reversal in the direction his play has been trending," Sam Monson of PFF wrote. DeCastro now has seven straight seasons with a PFF pass-blocking grade of at least 80.0, and he has surrendered just two sacks in four years, including the playoffs."
Kevin Dotson started four games last season, two at right guard and two at left guard, and he was impressive in the limited action that he saw. He was so good that the majority of the media and fans wanted to see him start at left guard over Matt Feiler in the wild-card game against the Browns. Mike Tomlin instead gave the nod to Feiler. Dotson is a rising player and there are pretty big expectations for him heading into his second season.
"The biggest projection on the list outside of rookies, Dotson has just 358 snaps of NFL action under his belt. In those snaps, he earned a pass-blocking grade above 87.2, allowing just one hurry," Monson wrote.
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