In one week, the Pittsburgh Steelers will kick off another edition of Steelers Training Camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
There on Chuck Noll Field in the rolling hills of Unity Township, all eyes will be glued to the biggest position battle of camp: left tackle.
That battle will feature third-year left tackle Dan Moore Jr. and his 33 career starts in the Black and Gold at the position against first-round pick Broderick Jones, who was selected at No. 15 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
While Moore seems like the frontrunner to be the Week One starter when the Steelers open up at home against the San Francisco 49ers at Acrisure Stadium in early September, Trench Warfare’s Brandon Thorn — one of the preminent offensive line analysts in the media landscape — believes the Jones has a real shot to win the job and offers more to the Steelers in the run game than Moore does, which should give the rookie the edge.
“I think on the surface you can look at this battle and say it’s Broderick Jones’ job because he was a top 15 draft pick, and Dan Moore was picked later in the draft. The thing is, Moore has been there as a starter and has improved each season, whereas Jones — even if he was a high draft pick — is very young, very raw, very inexperienced. He only had a year as a starter in college. He’s definitely more talented, more athletic, faster, more explosive, more powerful than Dan Moore, so I think long-term this is clearly Broderick Jones’ job,” Thorn said regarding the Steelers left tackle battle on his podcast, Trench Warfare. “But I think when they break camp for Week One, Moore has a good shot at winning this job. That said, with a quarterback in Kenny Pickett on his rookie deal, if you want to have at least adequate play at left tackle with upside for more, you gotta go with Broderick Jones. This one I lean Broderick Jones, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. I just think Broderick offers you something in the run game that can be special, whereas Dan Moore doesn’t. The pass game can be a little up and down for both, but you gotta lean Broderick here. It will be interesting to watch.”
The Steelers invested heavily in Jones, moving up in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft to land the Georgia product. Jones certainly has all the tools with his size, athleticism and overall mentality at the position.
Moore has the experience though, which could give him an edge in the battle, at least early on. Moore has started a possible 33 of 34 games for the Steelers and has played 1,160 snaps at left tackle in the last two seasons. Moore just needs to clean up his play a bit. After being flagged five times as a rookie, he had nine penalties called against him in 2022. That included four for holding and another four for false starts, so the issues were both pre-and post-snap. The other penalty was for illegal formation. Six of the nine came on the road, including three of the four holds.
Along with the issues with pre- and post-snap penalties, Moore allowed 39 total pressures last season, resulting in 22 hurries, 10 quarterback hits and seven sacks. The seven sacks match his rookie season output from 2021, but according to his profile on Pro Football Focus, his pass blocking grade jumped nearly 10 points to 67.3 in 2022.
It will be a rather fascinating battle in training camp and the preseason between the two. Moore has improved the last two seasons, but he’s had a rough go of things in pass protection. Pittsburgh clearly believes Jones is the franchise-caliber left tackle to protect Pickett moving forward and hold down a premium position for years to come.
Assuming health for both parties, the competition will only make the Steelers better, which is the goal with position battles. Whomever wins should be ready to hit the field quickly in Week One against the Niners and Nick Bosa aiming to prove why they deserved to win the job. Right now, it feels like that guy will be Moore, but based on what Thorn believes, there’s a chance the Steelers hand the reins to Jones quickly at the position and let him learn on the fly.
