The Pittsburgh Steelers spent back-to-back first-round picks on offensive tackles in the 2023 and 2024 NFL Drafts. General manager Omar Khan made a point to address the trenches, but questions remained about which side of the offensive line Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu would play. It appears we now have an answer.
During the offseason, Khan expressed his intent to kick Broderick back to left tackle. Early at Steelers OTAs, that's exactly what's happening. Jones is taking reps at left tackle with Fautanu at right tackle. Fautanu spoke on the matter following Day 1 of OTAs.
“I hadn’t played right tackle since freshman year of high school,” Fautanu said, via Nick Farabaugh of PennLive. “Playing it through OTAs last year and training camp, I started to really like it. It’s different, but a little bit easier.”
This is the offensive tackle alignment most fans were hoping for. At the same time, we can't help but be frustrated with how head coach Mike Tomlin botched this process from the beginning.
Mike Tomlin is to blame if the Pittsburgh Steelers' tackles have a slow start in 2025
When the Pittsburgh Steelers traded up for Jones in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, we all assumed it was to be the long-term left tackle. But instead of playing Jones at the position he played in college, Coach Tomlin made the decision to flip Broderick to the right side of the offensive line when Chukwuma Okorafor found himself in the dog house.
Instead of playing Jones at left tackle, Tomlin chose to appease 2021 fourth-round pick Dan Moore Jr., keeping him firmly in the left tackle position. Fast forward two years, and Moore isn't even on the team. Meanwhile, Jones has just one game of NFL experience under his belt at left tackle despite entering his third NFL season.
This is inexcusable, but it gets even worse.
Last year, after selecting Washington's left tackle Troy Fautanu in Round 1, the Steelers forced Jones and Fautanu to battle it out at right tackle, while Dan Moore safely held down the starting left tackle job. Both of the Steelers' first-round picks, who each played left tackle in college, were forced to move to right tackle last year.
Jones began his second season on the bench, but following Week 1, Fautanu suffered a season-ending knee injury, and Broderick filled in at right tackle for the rest of the season.
Now, these first-round offensive tackles are 24 years old and have a combined one game of NFL left tackle experience. This was an uncalled-for disaster that Mike Tomlin created.
Instead of appeasing a below-average offensive tackle in Dan Moore Jr., Tomlin should have looked ahead to the future and taken his lumps with Broderick Jones. We could be looking at a very different situation entering year three—one where the Steelers' 14th overall pick in 2023 already has 34 starts under his belt at left tackle.
Unfortunately, these talented but raw offensive tackles will begin the learning process all over again at new positions. If this goes poorly early in the 2025 season, we can point the finger at the Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach.
