The Pittsburgh Steelers’ competition at offensive tackle has been slowly developing through the first two weeks of training camp. It isn’t a huge surprise. Mike Tomlin almost always brings rookies along slowly and shows deference to veterans throughout the start of these competitions. But OT Troy Fautanu was drafted in the first round, and they didn’t make that high of an investment to sit him on the bench all season.
In 2023, it wasn’t until Week 9 that Broderick Jones became a full-time starter at right tackle to replace Chuks Okorafor. Dan Moore Jr. held down the starting left tackle job the entire season. Fautanu is a much more pro-ready player than Jones was coming out of college, so the prevailing narrative has been that he has a strong chance at earning the Week 1 right tackle job to move Jones back over to his natural left tackle position.
According to one Steelers insider, the wait might be quite a bit longer than that.
“I don’t see it changing,” said Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac on the North Shore Drive podcast this morning. “I think when they get to Atlanta for Week 1, what you see on the depth chart is what it’s going to be on the field…There’s no reason to take Dan Moore out of the starting lineup.
“I think Broderick Jones, for now, is gonna stay at right tackle.”
I can hear the collective sighs of those of you reading this article from my desk in Nashville.
Dulac also goes on to say Fautanu’s best chance of starting early is at guard. That doesn’t make a ton of sense. Fautanu has not played guard at all in practice, and both starting guards are much more secure in their jobs than Dan Moore Jr. at the moment.
I also think there is something to be said about deferring to what the depth chart says ahead of the first preseason game. Yes, Tomlin did reference it when asked about the quarterback pole position this week and said it was intentional. But according to the depth chart, Fautanu is the second-team left tackle at the moment. He hasn’t been practicing on the left at all, so I wouldn’t read too much into the depth chart beyond maybe the starting quarterback battle.
All that aside, it seems like the tackle competition could drag on into the regular season like it did with Jones last year. That begs the question of what conditions need to be met for a change to occur. Last year, Jones got his first start on the left side due to an injury and then took over the full-time right tackle job due to Okorafor mouthing off to the coaching staff. Moore’s Week 1 and 2 grades were about as bad as it gets in 2023, and they still didn’t make the change with Jones waiting in the wings.
If the goal is to eventually have Jones be a left tackle, his continued play on the right side is problematic. He had just 19 college starts at left tackle. To date, he has 10 starts at right tackle, including the playoffs. By the midway point of the season, he will have more experience on the right side than the left.
Jones was asked after Thursday’s practice what the plan is, and his reply seemed to have a slightly frustrated tone behind it. He still doesn’t know if he is playing both sides in the preseason, but noted he is the right tackle for now.
Troy Fautanu got his first full day of first-team right tackle work this past Tuesday at practice. He should get plenty of work with the second-team offense in today’s preseason game, too. Tomlin stated that preseason performances are weighted more than practice performances, so let’s all hope Fautanu stands out and forces the conversation sooner rather than later.
