Former Steelers LB Arthur Moats Defends Pittsburgh's Highly Unpopular Pending Free Agent

The Pittsburgh Steelers have recently adopted the Philadelphia Eagles' mindset of prioritizing building in the trenches. In the last two offseasons, they have drafted five offensive linemen and signed two others starters in free agency. All seven of those players have started in at least one game in Pittsburgh. Even then, it seems like there still needs to be upgrades. James Daniels and Dan Moore Jr. are both slated to be free agents, with Steeler Nation hoping that the latter one would be addition by subtraction, but not everyone sees it like that. 

Former outspoken Steelers linebacker, Arthur Moats gave his defense for Moore on his podcast, The Arthur Moats Experience. He brought up Moore's draft pedigree, as well as his stability at his position as reasons as to why he gets too much hate.

"We say we [the Steelers] should fire Pat Meyer because of how we view our first-round tackle [Broderick Jones], how we view Dan Moore -- even though we would always say as a whole, as a fourth rounder, if you start 66 games, there is nothing bust / bad / negative to say about a fourth-round draft pick that gave you 66 starts," explained Moats. "If we knew whoever we're going to draft in this fourth round would give us 66 starts, we're saying 'Bro, we hit. That's great.'"

Moore has started in every single game that he has played in. He has only missed two matches in his career: once in his rookie year in 2021, and once in 2023. He has played in at least 99% of the offensive snaps in every season but 2023. In 2024, however, he saw a significant decrease in special teams snaps from 13% to 4%. 

Of course, offensive line performance goes far beyond just playing the game. In 2024, Moore led the league in sacks allowed, and he was followed by his teammate, Broderick Jones. It doesn't matter how shocking it is that he keeps starting despite being a Day 3 pick; that performance is inexcusable. 

Moore is slated to be a free agent in the 2025 offseason. It's no secret that he will be allowed to walk away. If his overall performance was not an obvious enough indicator, the fact that the Steelers drafted offensive tackles in the first round in both 2023 and 2024 is. They're not wasting a pick just to have a player sit behind Moore for a few years.

While Jones has also not played well, he is a young project that has been playing out of position. He is primarily a left tackle that had to adjust because Moore has voiced his displeasure to switch sides. He at least deserves the chance to play his natural position and grow into the blindside blocker that he was envisioned to be when the Steelers traded up to select him. 

Steelers Kept Starting Moore Due To Odd Reasons

Obviously, no one would feel comfortable about having a fourth-round rookie start on Day 1, but Alejandro Villanueva was no longer with the team and Zach Banner suffered a season-ending injury the season prior. Moore won the starting job by default and never looked back, partially because he never had to.

When Jones was drafted, he mostly sat on the bench for the first chunk of his rookie season. Instead of taking over for Moore and playing left tackle, he moved to the right side when Chukwuma Okorafor was benched for allegedly saying something negative about the coaching staff during a game. 

After Troy Fautanu was drafted, he was expected to take over on the right side while Jones finally beat Moore out for the blindside. Instead, Fautanu got injured early in the season. Once again, Moore's inability to swap sides forced Jones to start on the right side. He even got benched when the rookie got healthy, but he was injured in practice shortly after that, which meant another year of Moore and Jones on the outside of the line.

What do you think about Moats' take on Moore? How do you think he played in Pittsburgh? Let us know in the comments or on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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