It's time to flip the narrative on Steelers' polarizing offensive tackles

The Pittsburgh Steelers have spent as many resources as any team in the league over the past two years to improve their offensive tackle position. After trading up to the 14th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to select Broderick Jones, the front office pulled the trigger on Washington's Troy Fautanu with the 20th overall pick in the 2024 draft.

Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan for these two young offensive tackles.

Fautanu suffered a knee injury in practice after his first game of the season and missed the rest of his rookie year. Meanwhile, Jones — a left tackle by trade — was forced to play right tackle in his second season in 2024.

Dan Moore Jr. looked like the hero of the story. Despite Pittsburgh's investments in the OT position, it was Moore who proved to be the healthiest and most reliable tackle on the roster... at least early in the season.

In his fourth season, Moore finally looked like a quality left tackle while Jones had numerous disastrous performances that included dozens of ugly reps and multiple penalties.

Now the script has flipped.

Steelers' offensive tackles have reversed course

In the first half of the season, there was no comparison: Dan Moore Jr. was the better offensive tackle by every metric. This included the eye test and Pro Football Focus grades. From Weeks 1-8 Moore earned a 74.1 PFF grade compared to a dismal 46.6 grade for Broderick Jones.

However, since the bye, Jones has been the better player.

Something magical must have happened during the bye week, because over the past eight games, Broderick looks like a completely new player. The 23-year-old offensive tackle cleaned up his technique and has been a much more consistent player than we saw early in the season.

Remarkably, Jones was the highest-graded offensive player on the Steelers on Christmas Day against the Chiefs — earning an excellent 83.6 overall grade.

Unfortunately, as Jones has improved, Moore is trending in the wrong direction. After an impressive first half of the season, Moore has earned just a 63.1 PFF grade from Week 10 to Week 17. What's more concerning is that no offensive tackle in the NFL has allowed more sacks (8) than Moore during this span.

For those who haven't been paying close attention, it's easy to convince yourself that Moore has been a Cinderella story for the Steelers and Jones is playing like a first-round bust. However, this has been anything but the case in the second half of the season.

Honestly, it's for the best. With the way things were going early on, Pittsburgh was about to have a costly decision to make with Dan Moore, who is set to become a free agent during the 2025 offseason. Inking a young, quality OT to a new deal wouldn't have come cheap for the Steelers, but it seemed like a necessity with the struggles Jones showcased.

Now the decision feels easy: Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu need to be the starters moving forward. Compared to Moore, Jones is a higher investment, a younger player, and performing at a higher level — not to mention he has two years remaining plus a fifth-year option on his rookie contract.

It's almost as if a young, raw offensive tackle like Broderick Jones just needed some time to develop before deciding to turn the page on a first round pick. Jones is beginning to play like the tackle the Steelers drafted him to be while Moore is reverting back to his old ways.