The hope of every young player entering the NFL is that you see an upward trajectory with your career as you continue to get more experience and snaps under your belt. It’s expected for every player to have somewhat of an adjustment period going from the college game to the pros, taking their lumps early before becoming more settled in and more consistent with time.
JT Bonomo of Pro Football Focus recently published a piece highlighting this development for some players in the league, showing their improvement of their overall grades from 2022 to 2023. However, Bonomo also highlighted several players that had their performance from a season ago fall off, resulting in a lower total PFF grade. Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Dan Moore Jr. ended up in the latter category, seeing his 2022 grade of 62.4 drop to 29.3 thus far in 2023.
“Moore and first-round rookie Broderick Jones have split snaps at left tackle this season due to an injury that kept Moore out of Week 5,” Bonomo wrote. “In Moore’s four starts, he has allowed the ninth-most pressures among offensive tackles (20).”
PFF has grilled Moore and the rest of the Steelers’ offensive line to start the season, often ranking it as one of the worst units in football. Moore especially has taken his lumps, grading out as the league’s worst offensive tackle in Week One against the 49ers and near the bottom of the league in Week Two against the Cleveland Browns.
In Moore’s defense, he had to face the likes of Nick Bosa, Myles Garrett, and Maxx Crosby the first four weeks of the season before going down with an MCL sprain early in Week Four against the Houston Texans. That is a gauntlet that would give any blocker nightmares. Still, Moore’s struggles didn’t come against Bosa as much as DE Drake Jackson, who had a career day against Moore, who surrendered 15 pressures alone in the first two weeks of the season.
Moore appears to be back from the knee injury suffered against the Texans, allowing rookie OT Broderick Jones to get his first start at left tackle where he represented himself well against the Ravens. Speculation is that Moore will reclaim his starting job this week despite Jones playing well in his stead. That decision could be a questionable one given how Moore has performed up to this point and how Jones played against Baltimore. But head coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t like benching starters due to injury, and it appears as if Moore will have another chance to boost his grade back up and keep his job, albeit on a likely shorter leash than before.
