Tim Benz: The Steelers' offensive tackle situation is becoming more complicated than it needs to be

As it currently stands, this is the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle situation.

• Last year’s first-round pick, Broderick Jones, was drafted with the goal of being a left tackle. For the second year in a row, it looks like he is preparing to play more often at right tackle.

• This year’s first-round pick is Troy Fautanu. He played left tackle at Washington but is now switching over to the right side to back up Jones, at least to start the season, even though many in the NFL Draft business projected him to likely end up at guard.

• Dan Moore is the incumbent starter at left tackle. He appears to be staying there, even though he is a free agent after this season and the franchise has drafted two players in the first round capable of taking his position over the past two seasons.

• If Moore should lose that job or get injured during a game, it’s likely Jones would move over to the left side, and Fautanu would become the starter on the right side.

• If Moore should get moved to the bench, he would become the swing tackle backup. The problem is that he doesn’t swing because he doesn’t play right tackle well, so he and the team prefer to keep him on the left side. That means if Jones should get hurt, Moore goes back in at left tackle. Or if Fautanu were to get hurt, Jones would go back over to the right side, and Moore would go back to the left side.

Between the team’s drafting decisions and what the players, coaches and management have said publicly, that’s how the situation is laid out.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense when you present it that way, until you add the time-honored, all-encompassing, fallback explanation of, “Welp, it’s the Steelers and that’s just how they do things.”

That certainly carried more weight in 2011 when they were coming off of three Super Bowl trips and four AFC Championship Game appearances in seven years. Now, without a single playoff win over the last seven years, that explanation rings a little hollow.

To an extent, I get it. In theory, there is nothing wrong with having Fautanu earn the starting job. Nor is there a problem with him working from the second or third level of the depth chart in May during OTAs as he makes the position switch from left to right.

That’s something he would have to do even if Moore wasn’t the starter and Jones was anchored on that side. Plus, Fautanu admits to a learning curve.

“It’s an adjustment, for sure,” Fautanu told me Wednesday. “It’s a lot different training for it in the pre-draft process when you aren’t really going against somebody. Then you come to OTAs, and it’s a little bit different. Guys are a little bit faster than they were in college. I’m just taking it day by day.”

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Jones, though, doesn’t seem to have as much of an issue with flip-flopping sides. Nor is he put off by the prospect of it.

“I really don’t care what side they put me on,” Jones said at the outset of OTAs. “As long as I am in the starting lineup, that’s fine with me. I’m an aggressive player. I’m a team player. Wherever they need me to play, I’m ready to play.”

It’s Moore’s lack of position flexibility that’s the real sticking point in all of this. He wants to be a left tackle, and head coach Mike Tomlin is on record last year as saying he is significantly better there than he is on the right side.

“If it comes to that, it comes to that,” Moore said last week of potentially switching sides. “But I haven’t been told anything. So, I’m just going to keep working on the left side.

“Based on the amount of starts (49) I have on the left side, I would like to view myself as a left tackle in this league. The reality is there’s competition. Teams have different views. So, it’s kind of just wherever they need me.”

For now, it’s Jones that is faced with the prospect of moving back and forth, and Fautanu is learning a new position coming out of college.

All this for a guy who is likely to be somewhere else next season?

I suppose the Steelers could respond to that by saying Moore could still be the starter for this season before Fautanu and Jones become the bookends in 2025.

OK. Sure. Then maybe wait a year to draft another tackle and address a different position, such as defensive back or wide receiver, because the Steelers don’t have the luxury of incubating a first-round pick for a full year.

The Steelers have a roster where the first-round pick really needs to contribute. Unlike a pass catcher, running back or someone on defense, it’s tough for an offensive lineman to do that unless he is a starter.

Who knows? Maybe the Steelers will eventually just invent a reason to shoehorn Fautanu into the starting lineup, whether it makes sense or not. That’s what they did with Jones after Chuks Okorafor committed the ultimate sin of grumbling about Matt Canada’s play calling on the sideline during the Jacksonville game last year.

As if 67,000 other human beings at Acrisure Stadium weren’t doing exactly the same thing at the time.

Sooner than later, Jones and Fautanu need to be the starters, and Moore just has to learn right tackle and be the backup to both spots.

By the way, if I’m Moore’s agent, I’m getting in my client’s ear and telling him to cool it with the frequent references to how hard it is for him to play the right side.

I get where Moore is coming from. He’s trying to best entrench himself as the only option on the left side here for this season. But once he gets to free agency in March, he may not want it on record with the rest of the NFL that he’s a “left side only” tackle.

Then again, maybe the Steelers will just sign him to a five-year contract and play with three tackles at the same time.

Why not? Steelers fans keep telling me that Arthur Smith’s offense basically only needs one wide receiver anyway. Maybe Moore can catch a few passes as a tackle-eligible?

Just make sure he’s still lined up on the left side, and George Pickens gets moved over to the right.

Listen: Tim Benz and Chris Adamski discuss the Steelers tackle situation at OTAs