Where Are They Now: Dakota Dozier

All football fields are 100 yards long and 53.3 yards wide. But it’s along the sidelines where rookies entering the NFL realize they’re not in Kansas anymore. Or in Dakota Dozier’s case, not in South Carolina anymore.

“I was used to about 1,500, with 4,000 being a big crowd at (Greenville’s) Paladin Stadium,” Dozier said. “And you step into MetLife, and it’s a little bit different environment. And so I definitely remember, ‘Man, I’m not playing FCS football anymore. I’m in the NFL.'”

A left tackle who appeared in 44 games with 43 starts over four seasons at Furman University, Dozier, who helped earn a share of the 2013 Southern Conference championship as a senior, was chosen by the Jets in the fourth round of the 2014 Draft.

“I mean, I was obviously ecstatic to have my entry into the NFL,” Dozier said. “I still remember answering the phone and hear (New York’s Head Coach) Rex Ryan say, ‘Hey, you want to be a Jet?’ That’s a memory that’s going to be stuck in my head the rest of my life.”

Although Dozier was inactive for all but one game during his rookie season, he displayed an admirable level of maturity and made the best of a situation that reminded him of his freshman year in college.

“I redshirted and that’s kind of what I took as my rookie year to be. Alright, this year I get to just learn. I just wanted to consume,” Dozier said. “One of the great things that year, I got drafted and immediately I was, ‘Wow, I’m going to be in the same room with Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson. I’m going to learn from some of the best to do it. And so, yeah, I wanted to be as much of a sponge as I could be.

“I mean, obviously, I would have loved to step in and play right away, but that wasn’t my role that year. And so I could have been woe is me. Or I could say, ‘You know what? Let me learn everything I can and get ready for my opportunity when it comes.'”

It came the following season under a new…