Steelers A to Z: Dan Moore Jr. trying to hold off another challenge to starting left tackle job

Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

OT Dan Moore Jr.

Experience/age: Fourth season/25

Contract status: $3,540,476 cap hit this year, signed through 2024

The past: Despite starting at left tackle for the past three seasons and being inactive just twice in 51 career games, Moore continues to be a lightning rod for criticism by fans and analytics savants.

Drafted in the fourth round in 2021, Moore unexpectedly started his rookie season at left tackle, and he has never given the position back despite the Steelers taking left tackle Broderick Jones in the first round in 2023 and converted right tackle Troy Fautanu in the first round in 2024.

Some thought a switch might happen last season when Moore injured his knee just eight offensive snaps into the Steelers’ game at Houston on Oct. 1. But Moore missed just one game and returned to his spot on the left side of the offensive line.

Moore continued to work with the frst-team offense at left tackle during offseason workouts.

LT Dan Moore said new QBs Russell Wilson and Justin Fields took the Steelers O-linemen out for a dinner at Capital Grille pic.twitter.com/QsgvlLodk1

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) May 29, 2024

2024 outlook: Moore can become a free agent after the season, and it seems like a foregone conclusion that he will be playing elsewhere in 2025. The Steelers have Jones waiting in the wings to move to left tackle, which would pave the way for Fautanu to slide in at right tackle.

It’s just a question of whether the Steelers make the move in training camp, during the season or wait until Moore becomes a free agent. Much depends on how quickly Fautanu learns right tackle after spending his college career on the left side.

Although Moore hasn’t graded well in the Pro Football Focus calculations, he has been a durable starter at left tackle, and the Steelers have been reluctant to move him out of the lineup. Barring a change of heart by the Steelers in training camp, Moore will enter his fourth NFL season as a starting left tackle.