The Pittsburgh Steelers have always wanted to play Broderick Jones at left tackle, needing only two preconditions. In the first instances, he needed to earn a starting job. He only entered the starting lineup in the middle of his rookie season, and at right tackle. Meeting that first condition, the second became necessary in finding a right tackle.
Early indications are that the Steelers believe they found one in Troy Fautanu. A first-round pick, Fautanu spent nearly all, but not all, of his college career at left tackle. Yet as we pointed out, he does have a high school background at right tackle. And the Steelers drilled him there during rookie minicamp, understanding that they already have left tackle covered in Jones and Dan Moore Jr.
“I immediately took away from that Troy Fautanu, baby steps, rookie camp stuff that, yeah, they’re going full speed ahead with Broderick Jones on the left side, Fautanu on the right side”, Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said yesterday on 93.7 The Fan.
That’s not insignificant, given previous comments from the organization. On multiple occasions, head coach Mike Tomlin turned down opportunities to commit to a future left tackle job for Jones. Even general manager Omar Khan, who went a step further, only said they expect Jones will “eventually” play left tackle.
It seemed as though organizationally they wanted to skew on the cautious side. Perhaps Tomlin really believed Broderick Jones might remain a right tackle for all of his career.
And even after the Steelers drafted Fautanu, that became a question. After all, Fautanu played left tackle at the University of Washington. Jones already has legitimate NFL experience at right tackle. Wouldn’t it be simpler to just plug Fautanu in at left tackle and go from there?
“I ultimately do think that they’ve got a reason behind doing that”, Batko said. “They’re ready to get Fautanu acclimated to the right tackle spot because they’re gonna follow up on what Omar Khan said”. He added that if that wasn’t the Steelers’ plan, “Omar answers that question a lot differently”.
But plans don’t always come to fruition as intended. We can’t say definitively that Jones moves to left tackle and Fautanu plays right tackle. What if the Steelers find that Fautanu on the left side and Jones on the right is their best combination? After all, they’re both first-round draft picks and highly touted prospects. Who’s to say Fautanu isn’t the better left tackle between the two?
I think their Plan A is to move Broderick Jones to left tackle and play Fautanu to right tackle. But they’ll spend the offseason figuring out if that is their most viable option. I would bet money that it works out that way, but you need to go through the process of figuring it all out.
