Offensive Tackle May Not Be The Most Important Position For the Steelers In The 2023 Draft

With it officially being April, it is now draft month and with that, teams and the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to start having interviews with their top 30 players in the draft. After having a surprisingly great free agency, only a few more holes seem to need to be filled to push the Steelers into being elite contenders. Many fans and other analysts suspect that a starting offensive tackle is potentially the team's biggest need, but a Steelers insider thinks that may not be the case.

Starting rule for the Steelers left tackle position

Recently on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, their Steelers writer Gerry Dulac gave a bunch of his thoughts from questions and answers and stated that Dan Moore Jr. could be playing in the starting rule for the Steelers' left tackle position in 2023. This is what he was asked:

"Based on your insight, do you believe the front office is thumbs-up with Moore and will look at other positions during the draft," asked a reader. Dulac responded by stating, "If they thought they could get a top-tier LT at No. 1, it wouldn't surprise me to see them do that. I don't think they are in panic mode about Dan Moore Jr., like the fans seem to be."

With him saying this, I think it leaves about three different offensive tackles that if they are on the board when the Steelers select that they could possibly take a shot at. Those three players would be Peter Skoronski from Northwestern and Paris Johnson Jr. out of Ohio State who are pretty clearly the top tackles in this year's draft, and I could see Broderick Jones for Georgia going higher than people predict him to go. If the Steelers are sold on Moore, then we could possibly see none of these players in Pittsburgh.

Building off of the fact that Dulac thinks that Moore will be the starting tackle in 2023, he is asked another question that is similar to the one before. But in this one, he becomes almost defensive over Moore as a player and his statement. Dulac stated this about Moore:

"Do you think Dan Moore will be the starting LT come Week 1? They are in some trouble if that’s the case," a reader commented. Dulac responded by stating, "I think he will be. And I disagree with your assessment."

The one reason why I believe that Dulac could possibly be right in his assessment of Moore and the Steelers in the 2023 Draft is by looking at last year's draft. Pittsburgh's offensive line in 2021 was awful and arguably the worst in the league. With that many fans and analysts expected and almost were certain that the Steelers would take a lineman within the first three rounds, but that never happened. In fact, after a few small pick-ups in the 2022 free agency, they went and used the same offensive line for the entire year. 

This year they had an even better free agency and gained more offensive line help. I think getting a guy like Skoronski would be huge for the Steelers. But I keep asking myself the question, why would they take an offensive tackle this year when it was even more needed last year?

So, what do you think, Steeler Nation? Is offensive tackle still the biggest need on your draft board or is there something else you want? Let me know in the comments below!

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