Dan Moore Jr. may lose his starting spot with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he’s not likely to be traded anywhere — at least, that’s what assistant general manager Andy Weidle said on Thursday. Maybe I’m reading too much into it (they traded two linemen last year), but he sees value in depth.
“Omar [Khan] Broderick, at some point in the past [Jones] “It’s going to be left tackle, and the depth is good,” Weidle said on the team’s website. “Those two guys and Dan Moore are good to have. You can never have enough offensive line, and I’m happy to have those two guys.”
Dan Moore Jr., a fourth-round pick in the 2021 draft, has started every game at left tackle in his career. The Steelers had no intention of starting him as a rookie, but injuries changed those plans, and they haven’t been able to move him out of the starting lineup since.
But the Steelers have used their first-round picks on tackles Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu in the past two drafts, and they don’t pick in the first round unless they intend to have a starting tackle, which means the clock is ticking on Moore.
Moore is in the final year of his contract and obviously doesn’t want to lose his starting spot. Thanks to the Proven Performance Escalator, he’ll be making $3.366 million this season, which is a bit high for a reserve player, so some have speculated the Steelers might trade him if he’s not a starter.
After all, they did the same thing with Kevin Dotson last year, but only after they had a comfortable depth record. The Steelers traded Dotson at the end of the offseason after he was a fourth-round starter in the final year of his contract and with a high salary. Sure, he became one of the top guards in the league and the Rams paid him big money, but don’t expect Dan Moore Jr. to repeat that feat.
“It’ll take care of itself. It’s a long season. We need all 53 guys,” said Andy Weidle, who still leads tackles Moore at this point, when discussing the depth of the roster. “Every Super Bowl team I’ve been on, we needed all 53 guys and more. So the depth is going to be tested at some point, maybe early or middle of the season or maybe later, and we’ve got to have guys that we know can go out and play, handle themselves, get through that adversity and take their place.”
Last year, the Steelers used Moore and Chukwuma Okorafor as tackles with Jones as the rookie backup, and if they trade Moore, they’d have to use Dylan Cook as a swing tackle this year, but with the depth they have, it makes some sense.
At this point, Cook is probably on the outside looking in unless the Steelers trade someone like Moore or Nate Herbig. Both of those players command high salaries and will lose their starting spot sooner or later. The Steelers also have deep roster with Mason McCormick, Spencer Anderson and Cook. If they don’t want to put Cook on waivers as long as they keep either Moore or Herbig, that’s fine. The Steelers chose not to put Cook on waivers once last year.