Who will be the Steelers’ starting tackles in Week 1?

Who will be the Steelers’ starting tackles in Week 1?

This is one of the biggest questions facing the Steelers, although I’m not sure we know the answer. With rookie Troy Fautanu still working on his recovery from a knee injury, maybe we should just assume that Dan Moore Jr. and Broderick Jones will open the season as the Steelers’ starting tackles.

In other words, I suspect the Steelers will just pick up where they left off last year. And I’m not sure exactly when, if ever, they plan to turn things around this season.

Of course, the Steelers want to get Fautanu on the field, but what if it’s not urgent? If the line with Moore and Jones is going well, would the Steelers really start to reshuffle the deck? They had their reasons when they benched Chukwuma Okorafor for Jones last year.

And this year it is even more complicated because a change would require a trip to Jerusalem. If Fautanu gets into the starting lineup, the Steelers will probably Move Jones from right tackle to left tackle. Then you not only have to bench Moore, you also have to move Jones to the left side.

That’s a question they’ll have to face sooner or later, but the first variable in the schedule is Fautanu’s health. If he’s healthy enough to practice this week, he has a good chance of being eligible to play. If he can establish himself as a candidate for the starting lineup, the Steelers will have to have that discussion.

On the other hand, if he can’t practice enough because of his knee, the question answers itself. Moore and Jones will remain in the starting lineup and Jones will remain right tackle. The Fautanu question – and by extension the Jones question – is something you can worry about at a later date.

The Steelers could Use Fautanu as right tackle above Jones and send the 2023 first-round pick to the bench. I don’t think they want to do that, although his “many” injuries don’t help. However, this approach creates the least instability with a one-for-one trade.

The Steelers’ 2024 season is approaching, after another disappointing year that ended with a first-round playoff loss. The only change in the annual formula of late is whether they’ll be eliminated early or miss the playoffs altogether. They’ve had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills put them out of their misery in January.

The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Will Russell Wilson make them a Super Bowl-caliber team or will they waste a year? How will the team continue the depth diagram?

The Steelers are in training camp and the preseason and the 2024 season are coming into focus. They have made numerous changes through signings, trades and firings. More than usual, they seemed to be creating holes and were confident they could fill them. Some they were able to fill, others less so. Now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, however, we just have to ask ourselves a new set of questions.