Steelers have a position battle that no one expected

We’ve talked at length about some of the most interesting position battles the Pittsburgh Steelers have going on during training camp and the preseason. We even talked about a potential position battle between offensive tackles Dan Moore Jr. and rookie Troy Fautanu for the starting right tackle spot.

But according to Steelers beat writer Gerry Dulac, we’ve got it all wrong. The battle isn’t between Fautanu and Moore and all. It’s between Moore and Broderick Jones.

Huh?

Dulac wrote that the Steelers are prepared to hand the starting right tackle job to Fautanu now and let Moore and Jones duke it out to start on the left side.

After three weeks of training camp and just one preseason game, they are ready to hand the starting right tackle job over to their No. 1 draft choice. They planned to start him in Saturday night’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills and leave him there for the start of the regular season until he injured his knee Friday night against the Houston Texans.

That will leave Broderick Jones, last year’s No. 1 pick, to battle incumbent Dan Moore Jr. for the starting left tackle position.

The Steelers have been trying to replace Moore in the lineup for two years and he just keeps battling to hold his spot. We assumed the starting tandem would be Jones on the left and Fautanu on the right no matter what this season but the idea that Jones is less assured of a starting spot than Fautanu is hard to wrap our heads around.