In an ideal world, rookie first-round pick Broderick Jones beats out incumbent Dan Moore Jr. for the starting role at left tackle ahead of the start of the 2023 season, allowing the Steelers’ much-anticipated draft pick to hit the field quickly in his rookie season.
What if that doesn’t happen though? What if Moore, with his 33 career starts, holds off Jones throughout training camp and the preseason and wins the starting left tackle job ahead of Week 1 against Nick Bosa and the San Francisco 49ers? What becomes of Jones on the 53-man roster?
For many reading this, the easy answer is that Jones becomes the swing tackle until he’s ready to truly step into the starting job.
That’s much more complicated than it sounds when it comes to Jones.
For starters, Jones would be getting nearly all of his reps in training camp and the preseason at left tackle, so then asking him to be the swing tackle and have some responsibilities at right tackle seems like a significant stretch. While he says he is comfortable playing right tackle and did so at Georgia during practices, the fact of the matter is that he has just 34 snaps at right tackle in college, with 25 of those coming during the 2020 season with the Bulldogs. He has just nine snaps since then.
Entering the NFL, Jones isn’t going to be tasked with learning both left and right tackle with the Steelers under offensive line coach Pat Meyer. Instead, he’s going to be allowed to focus on left tackle to get up to speed within the Steelers’ offense while learning Meyer’s techniques, which is done to help Jones be as comfortable as possible in his initial foray into the NFL.
So, if it’s a bit of a stretch to ask Jones to be that swing tackle if he doesn’t win the starting job at left tackle due to his inexperience at right tackle, what would Jones’ role be? Realistically, he could be inactive early on in the season, if that’s the case.
The Steelers signed Le’Raven Clark in the offseason due to not only his length and experience, but his versatility and ability to play left and right tackle in a pinch. If Jones isn’t the starting left tackle, it would be better for the Steelers to let Clark get a helmet early in the season as Jones continues to work on his game and eventually work towards the starting left tackle job. That might be painful — and concerning — for people to read, but asking Jones to all of a sudden learn right tackle on the fly after an offseason playing primarily left tackle is setting him up for failure.
At the very least, Clark can handle the swing tackle role until Jones steps into the lineup at left tackle. Once that happens — and make no mistake: it will at some point if not at the start of the season — Moore slides into the swing tackle role due to his work at left and right tackle this offseason and his experience in college and early in the NFL at the position.
It’s not an ideal situation to potentially have Jones inactive on game days early in the season with Clark getting a helmet as the swing tackle, but it might be what happens if the Georgia standout doesn’t beat out Moore in training camp for the starting job.
