Dermontti Dawson never played center other than on the scout team at the University of Kentucky. After being a second-round draft choice of the Steelers in 1988, he started five games at right guard, his college position, his rookie season in the NFL.
But, during the offseason, coach Chuck Noll called him into the office and told Dawson he was being switched to center. He was going to replace nine-time Pro Bowler Mike Webster, who was released following the 1988 season.
“I had no problem,” Dawson said. “I just remember when the media got hold of it everyone asked me, ‘Do you think you will be a good center, you’re following Mike Webster?’ I said just give it time and we’ll go from there.”
The Steelers can only hope the latest player to transition from college guard to NFL center — rookie Kendrick Green — works out so well.
Beginning in 1989, Dawson started 166 consecutive games, was named first-team All-Pro six times, voted to seven Pro Bowls and became acclaimed as the NFL’s first pulling center. His career landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame alongside Webster — making the Steelers one of only two teams to have two centers enshrined.
“It’s amazing to have that success at center following Mike and Mike making into the Hall of Fame and then me following him,” Dawson said the other day on the phone from his home in San Diego, where he has lived for 11 years. “That’s almost unheard of.”
Green, the Steelers’ third-round choice who made only four of his 33 starts at Illinois at center, is stepping into a similar situation.
He is replacing Maurkice Pouncey, who retired at the end of 2020 season after being named to the Pro Bowl nine of his 10 NFL seasons. Green has been given the added burden of wearing Pouncey’s No. 53, though not because the Steelers expect him to live up to that number. It was the jersey number Green wore in high school and college.
“I kind of requested it, but knowing [Pouncey] retired I was fully prepared for me to keep it off,” Green said after practice during the three-day rookie minicamp that ended Sunday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “But they let me have it. I’ve got big shoes to fill, so I’m going to work towards that.”
The Steelers plan is to have Green ready to be the starting center by the Sept. 12 season opener in Buffalo. For that to be the case, Dawson said Green’s biggest task in transitioning to center is learning the playbook — not just his position, but the entire offense.
Guards in the NFL are not typically entrusted with calling out the line signals, though it is not unprecedented.
“You’re almost like the quarterback of the offensive line,” Dawson said. “All the calls are predicated on you, based on your protection, when audibles are called, you got to know where to go. You have to know where the mike [linebacker] is inside, whether the mike rotated — make sure you know where mike has rotated. Then make the audibles.
“You call different blocks based on the defense. That’s the biggest transition. You have to make sure you know the offense inside and out.”
That becomes even more important with a veteran quarterback such as Ben Roethlisberger, who will routinely change calls and protections at the line of scrimmage.
Then there are the physical challenges of playing center in the NFL that are different from playing guard, Dawson said.
“Physically, the thing I had to work on was having the nose guard over you, or shaded to one side,” Dawson said. “That was thing that was toughest. You had to sit back, even though you wanted to contact that guy first, but you don’t want to turn your body and create a gap. That’s what I had to learn. That was the hardest transition for me. It hasn’t changed.”
Dawson said he played center on the scout team at Kentucky the week they were preparing for the 1984 Hall of Fame Bowl against Wisconsin because assistant coach John Devlin wanted to prepare his defense for a physical game against the Badgers.
“He said, ‘I don’t care if you fight, just make them better,’” Dawson said.
But, Dawson was asked by NFL personnel during the week of the Senior Bowl to take some reps at center — a precursor to what lay ahead for him with the Steelers. The athleticism he showed at guard is what allowed him to pull on sweeps in the NFL — something the league really never saw from a center before.
“Just make sure he understands that,” Dawson said as a word of advice to Green, referring to the challenges of the transition. “But he’ll find out once he’s in practice with those guys, what he’s doing right or what he is weak at, then work on those weakness. Making sure you step the right way. One thing that might be easy may be hard for someone else. Everyone is different.”
Green said he is ready for the transition.
“You know, I’m real comfortable at both [positions],” he said. “Center is bit more of a mental side of the game, but I’m fully prepared to swing that as well. There’s really not too much [difference]. It’s all the same, playing physical, playing aggressive and coming off the ball hard.”
Like Dawson, the Steelers will give it time and go from there.
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: May 17, 2021, 9:20 a.m.
