In just a few days the Pittsburgh Steelers will kick off their 2024 season on the road inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the Atlanta Falcons.
Much of the focus will center on the Steelers’ offense, one that is new-look with coordinator Arthur Smith now in charge and quarterback Russell Wilson the starter for the Steelers.
A lot of attention will also be paid to the Steelers’ tackle situation. As of now, it appears that veteran Dan Moore Jr. will be the starting left tackle and Broderick Jones will be the starting right tackle. For former Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke, Moore is a guy that he believes will hold down the fort at left tackle all season.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s any kind of slouch. I think the Dan Moore Jr. has risen to the occasion every time they’ve drafted someone. He’s a competitor,” Hoke said, according to audio via 93.7 The Fan. “And when there’s competition, it brings the best out of people and it’s brought the best outta him. There’s a good chance of that [Moore remains the starter all year]. I just don’t know how you sit down Dan Moore Jr. Man, maybe you rotate Broderick Jones over the left to see how he does. But Dan Moore Jr., I think, is playing pretty good football.
“I mean, if you’re gonna go out and you’re gonna say, ‘This guy’s gonna go out in the market and make a zillion dollars when he leaves here,’ that tells you he’s a pretty good football player.”
After drafting Jones and rookie Troy Fautanu in the first round of the NFL draft in back-to-back years, the belief all offseason was that Jones would eventually be the starting left tackle and Fautanu would be the starting right tackle with Moore going to a reserve role.
But coming out of training camp and the preseason, Moore has more than held his own and made it hard for the Steelers to move off from him. That’s left Jones floating in the wind between left and right tackle with Fautanu’s knee injury. Now, the Steelers are appearing to get healthy along the offensive line, which could have Fautanu forcing his way into the lineup.
The question there becomes what happens with Jones? Is it conceivable that he remains on the bench if Fautanu passes him up? Hoke certainly believes that could be the case.
To Moore’s credit, he’s been rather solid all summer and in the preseason. Coming out of the 2023 season, there was nowhere to go but up after Moore was the worst pass-blocking tackle in the NFL last season, per Pro Football Focus. So, he’s really played well this summer and made things very difficult for the Steelers when it comes to their decision-making process.
It also hasn’t helped that Jones, who was expected to take a significant step forward, looked “disinterested” during the preseason in Hoke’s eyes.
“Again, we were under-impressed in the preseason,” Hoke said of Jones. “And could it be that it was a lack of just an ability to play that position? Or at times I felt like, I noticed as I watched that there was an uninterest, a disinterest, in what was going on. Kinda like, almost like he felt like he’d already arrived.”
That was a previous comment from Hoke after Jones’ awful showing against the Buffalo Bills in the preseason, allowing two sacks and multiple pressures that led to major concerns. Jones stated that he wasn’t aggressive enough and didn’t set the tone in that matchup against the Bills. Though he bounced back against the Detroit Lions in the Steelers’ preseason finale, there is still quite a bit of concern there.
It’s hard to see Jones remaining on the bench all season if Fautanu overtakes him. While the Steelers respect Moore and appreciate the work he’s done, Jones was drafted to be the future at left tackle. We’ll see what happens throughout the course of the season at the tackle position. It seems like a bit of a weird take to say Moore will be the starter at LT all season, especially after what the Steelers invested in the position the last two years from a draft-capital standpoint.
Time will tell. Hoke believes in Moore quite a bit, that much is clear.
