The biggest question surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into their Week Seven matchup with the Los Angeles Rams is whether rookie Broderick Jones or veteran Dan Moore Jr. will start at left tackle. According to Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Moore will start Sunday unless there’s a setback with the MCL sprain that caused him to miss Pittsburgh’s Week Five matchup with the Baltimore Ravens.
“Dan Moore’s gonna start on Sunday unless there’s a setback with his knee,” Fittipaldo said on The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan.
In other news, Fittipaldo said that veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson will work inside as the team’s slot corner, while rookie Joey Porter Jr. will primarily work outside against fellow rookie Puka Nacua.
“Peterson’s gonna be on the inside guarding Cooper Kupp,” he said, “Joey Porter on the outside covering Puka Nacua. They really like Porter’s length in that matchup, Puka’s another big guy.”
Neither revelations comes as much surprise. The Steelers obviously like and trust Moore and think that he did a fine job early in the season. While the metrics disagree, Moore did face a difficult slate of pass rushers, going up against Nick Bosa, Myles Garrett, and Maxx Crosby in the first three weeks of the season. The Steelers want to give Moore another shot at left tackle after a promising end to his 2022 campaign and impressive preseason. Jones will remain waiting in the wings despite his strong performance against the Ravens in Week Five.
As for Porter, he graded out as the highest-rated corner in the NFL on Pro Football Focus in Week Five, and he rotated with both Wallace and Peterson in that game working on the outside. Peterson’s someone who likes playing inside, and the thought was it would be something he does more of with the Steelers than he has throughout his career. It sounds as if he’ll get that opportunity this week, with Porter having the ability to keep his impressive rookie season going in a bigger role. He’ll have a tough matchup with Nacua, the rookie standout who has been one of the NFL’s best wideouts this season with 50 receptions for 598 yards already.
While I’m sure many won’t be excited about the prospect of Moore starting over Jones, we’ll see if he can show what he did to win the starting job in the first place. It’s going to be fun to watch Porter in a larger role, and hopefully he can carry over the momentum of Week Five through the bye and into the matchup with Los Angeles.
