Steelers coach Mike Tomlin waiting before giving starting LT job back to Dan Moore Jr.

Just because Dan Moore Jr. took first-team reps in practice Monday doesn’t necessarily mean he will regain his starting left tackle job when the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Coach Mike Tomlin isn’t ready to proclaim Moore as the starter, a position he held for two-plus seasons until he suffered a sprained knee Oct. 1 at Houston. A return to the starting lineup for Moore, of course, would send first-round pick Broderick Jones back to the bench after he made his first NFL start Oct. 8 against Baltimore.

Tomlin wants to see more of Moore from a health standpoint during the next three days of practice. But it looks like Moore will start if the injured knee permits.

“That’s a big if,” Tomlin said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “We’ve got some work ahead of us. He’ll be given an opportunity to show his progress over the course of the week. We’ll make that decision at the appropriate time.”

Moore worked with the first-team offense Monday when the Steelers held a bonus day of practice after their bye week, and Tomlin said the results were favorable.

“He looked pretty good yesterday,” Tomlin said. “We’ll see where that leads us.”

Tomlin said he was impressed with the way Jones filled in for Moore against the Ravens, but he appears to be willing to take a deliberate approach before making the No. 14 overall draft pick the full-time protector of quarterback Kenny Pickett’s blind side.

Tomlin doesn’t have a firm policy on players returning from injury automatically recapturing their starting positions.

“It’s on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “It has to be. I want to be fair to everyone. If they are quick learners, you don’t want to exclude them. If you are a veteran player that doesn’t require a lot of physical reps, you don’t want to exclude them. Over the years, I’ve learned to handle it on a case-by-case basis.”

The experience Jones gained in the start against Baltimoreand the 51 snaps he played after Moore’s injury against the Texans can help the rookie in the long run, Tomlin said.

“It’s the in-helmet perspective of play that you can’t get anywhere else but from playing,” he said. “He hasn’t been deficient in learning in any other venues. It’s just a process and opportunity.”

Rookie cornerback Joey Porter’s playing time can be viewed in a similar way, although his increased playing time has been because of his performance and not an injury to a starter. Porter played a career-high 28 snaps against the Ravens, sending veteran corners Levi Wallace and Patrick Peterson to the bench at various stages of the second half.

Tomlin isn’t ready to anoint Porter as a starter ahead of either of those players just yet.

“Several variables are at play,” Tomlin said. “What it is they do and the quality with which they do it, and it’s also the opportunity. Such is always the case in team play. Things and decisions don’t happen in a vacuum. You can be pleased with the progress of a player in the terms of the direction he’s been moving, but the opportunity has to be there.

“We challenge these guys not to be patient. This is not a patient person’s business. It doesn’t behoove them to be patient. We ask them to work while they wait for their opportunity and put their readiness on display. Jones and Porter have done a really good job of that. We’ll wait for continued opportunities for them and check their progress as we move forward.”