A year ago, Dan Moore Jr. took then-rookie Broderick Jones under his wing, showing him the ropes. Now he’s just as proud of watching Jones, just one year later, doing the same for Troy Fautanu. “That’s what it’s all about”, he said last week via the team’s website, building up the team from within.
All three are competing at the tackle positions for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Moore is the incumbent starter at left tackle for the past three seasons. Jones, a first-round pick a year ago, moved into the starting lineup at right tackle by midseason. He could shift to left tackle this year if Fautanu, this year’s first-round pick, can handle the right side.
That hasn’t stopped Moore from nurturing both, however, as they build each other up. And he sees Jones stepping up, as well. “I like how he’s leading, how he’s helping out the younger guys, helping out Zach [Frazier] in meetings, sitting next to him and Troy [Fautanu] after practice”, he said. “It’s cool to see a young guy who I was helping last year transition to a leader and now helping that younger guy”.
Moore, Jones, and Fautanu were all left tackles in college, but Moore has struggled the most at right tackle. Jones and Fautanu have both said that they practiced both sides in college. Fautanu also played some right tackle back in high school.
Broderick Jones had to make the transition from left tackle to right tackle last year. He did so relatively successfully and without the benefit of spending a lot of time practicing there in the offseason. The Steelers put him in direct competition for Dan Moore Jr.’s starting left tackle job, which he lost. Now, he may be ready to win that battle, but he needs Fautanu to be able to play right tackle if Moore can’t.
“I feel like Troy [Fautanu] can be whatever he wants to be at the end of the day”, Jones said via the team’s website. “He has the ability, he has the size, he has the talent. It’s just all about what he’s comfortable with”.
“It takes repetition, it takes time, it takes patience”, Jones added about Fautanu making the position switch Moore doesn’t seem to think he can. “Just for him to get in, learn as much as he can without overthinking things, I think he’ll be all right. He’s a good player. He listens well. He understands the game of football. I feel like he’ll be okay in the long run”.
Jones only turned 23 a few weeks ago. He is a young leader on this team already and certainly a future leader on the offensive line. Right now, that group has some elders in Isaac Seumalo and James Daniels. But Jones, Fautanu, and Frazier are the young nuclei gradually forming. At least, that’s the plan. At one point in time, we wondered if Moore and Kendrick Green weren’t that new young nucleus.
