Outside of the wide receiver battle for the No. 2 spot behind George Pickens in training camp, one of the most anticipated camp battles for the Pittsburgh Steelers at Saint Vincent College will be the offensive tackle positions on both the left and right side featuring Dan Moore Jr., Broderick Jones and rookie Troy Fautanu.
How it will look come Week 1 in Atlanta is anyone’s guess, but the prevailing thought is that Moore would hold down left tackle and Jones at right tackle until Fautanu is ready, then putting Jones over at left tackle and Fautanu into the lineup at right tackle, making Moore the swing tackle.
The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly doesn’t believe it will be that way.
In a mailbag question from a reader Monday morning, Kaboly stated that Jones enters training camp as the starting left tackle, while Moore and Fautanu will battle it out at right tackle.
“Jones is your starting left tackle. Moore and Fautanu will battle for right tackle in camp,” Kaboly writes regarding the tackle situation for Pittsburgh. “The loser of that battle will be the swing tackle.”
That is a bit of a surprise, considering the talk all offseason about Moore being unable to play right tackle and the Steelers still believing in him at left tackle, while also reportedly having “no internal discussions” about Moore playing right tackle in 2024.
However, Steelers GM Omar Khan has also stated publicly that Jones would be the left tackle sooner rather than later, and that Fautanu will play right tackle in training camp. Pittsburgh put him at right tackle right away in rookie minicamp, starting the process of his transition from left tackle in college to the right side, trying to get him up to speed quickly.
He’s had some ups and downs, but offensive line coach Pat Meyer stated at the end of minicamp that Fautanu has improved tremendously from the start of rookie minicamp to now. That’s very encouraging.
Entering his first training camp at Saint Vincent College, it sounds like he’ll battle with Moore, who has stated that he isn’t very comfortable at right tackle and has some issues there. Head coach Mike Tomlin said he was going to get a look at guys on both sides until he gets more clarity, and added that the struggles Moore has at right tackle are from the media’s perspective, not his.
While that might be the case, Moore has been reluctant to talk about a move to right tackle throughout the offseason, seeming rather uncomfortable when the subject is brought up. And why would he? He’s started 49 games at left tackle since entering the NFL in 2021.
If he wants to remain a starter for the Steelers though, he’ll have to make that adjustment to right tackle and beat out Fautanu. That seems like a rather tall task for Moore, but in the end, it’s what is best for the Steelers’ offensive line, if that’s how it ends up playing out in training camp.
A bookend of Jones at left tackle — where he was drafted to play — and Fautanu at right tackle makes the Steelers’ offensive line that much better and stronger than a Moore/Jones tandem to start the year before changes would need to be made mid-season.
