With the Steelers’ 2022 season unfortunately now in the rearview mirror, a 9-8 campaign that came up short too late in spite of a strong second half, we now turn our attention to the offseason, and the many decisions that will have to be made over the course of the next several months.
This is now a young team on the offensive side of the ball, though one getting older on defense, and both sides could stand to be supplemented robustly, including in the trenches—either one. Decisions about the coaching staff must also be made, as well as who to prioritize in free agency, and what to look for from the outside, before getting to the draft.
These sorts of uncertainties are what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
Topic Statement: Taylor Lewan would be an upgrade at left tackle for the 2023 season.
Explanation: Setting aside his age, injury history, and price tag, Taylor Lewan has been a talented left tackle for the better part of a decade. Dan Moore Jr. is still very much a work in progress, and it’s not clear if that work will ever see completion. This topic does not concern the future beyond 2023 nor the salary cap, but simply asks whether Lewan would be better than Moore next season, all other things being equal.
Buy:
This is not in the purview of the topic statement, but Lewan to the Steelers is never going to happen. He won’t even be healthy for months, having torn his ACL in September, and he’s not going to play for less than eight figures. He might even retire.
But if he were on the Steelers’ roster in 2023, he would be the starting left tackle, and he would be better than Dan Moore Jr. would be at left tackle in 2023. He may not be the healthier, younger, more athletic option, but the talent gap remains significant, even in consideration of Lewan’s injuries.
No matter how much Pat Meyer works with Moore, he’s still going to be who he is. I frankly thought he was playing better toward the end of his rookie year than he was even in 2022.
Sell:
The truth is that we can’t completely dismiss health from this equation. After all, we’re talking about an offensive lineman on the wrong side of 30 who has had two torn ACLs in the past three years. And he missed time during the 2021 season in between his knee tears because the first tear was never fully healed. Who’s to say he won’t have complications from that injury in 2023?
As to the broader question of actual performance, he wasn’t playing awfully in recent years, but his play also wasn’t that of a Pro Bowler, and there’s no reason to think that it will be getting any better at this point, especially not moving to a new team with a new system.
As for Moore, he’s only gotten better. Once he understood and bought into what Meyer was asking him to do, he made some real strides and should be set up to have his best season yet, perhaps (hopefully) by far in 2023.
