Depth chart analysis: Right tackle

This is the twelfth of a 24-part series that will run up to SEC Media Days detailing Auburn's depth chart heading into the 2014 season. This comes well after the Tigers concluded their 15 spring practices and includes insight from nearly every position coach on the staff.

AUBURN -- One of the more competitive position battles for the last two seasons has been at right tackle, where Avery Young returns for his season full season as a starter.

Young beat out Patrick Miller for the job in 2012, then went down with a shoulder injury. The roles reversed last season once Miller sat out a suspension and Young started the final nine games.

Miller is vying for the starting left tackle spot, but could go back on the right side, and Young could move inside.

The Two-Deep
Avery Young (6-foot-6, 309 pounds, sophomore)
Patrick Miller (6-foot-7, 289 pounds, junior)

Gus Malzahn's take
"(Avery Young's) got the ability to play both. But obviously he's our right tackle."

POSITION ANALYSIS: QB | RB | HB | TE | SE | F | SLOT | LT | LG | C | RG

Starter
Avery Young is a tough customer. He played with a broken hand for nearly the entire BCS title game.

"When it snapped, I didn't realize it was that bad until I had to buckle up my chin strap," he said. "When I did that, my hand just went down to the side. ... From a scale of 1 to 10, (the pain) was about a 100. ... Basically the whole game I'm blocking with four fingers and nobody noticed."

That gruesome injury is healed and Young is focused on keeping his spot. He doesn't have a preference on guard or tackle, though it appears he'll stay on the outside, where he's started 12 games

Backup
Patrick Miller could still win the job on the left side, but he's the top tackle behind Young is he doesn't beat out Shon Coleman.

Next Wave
Robert Leff (6-foot-6, 286 pounds, sophomore) and Will Adams (6-foot-7, 296 pounds, sophomore) are down the depth chart at tackle.

Summer Arrivals
Austin Golson has enrolled after transferring from Ole Miss and will walk-on this season. He started at tackle for the Rebels but it sounds like he'll be a guard for the Tigers.

Quotable
"I still look at him as a tackle but he can definitely play guard, there's no question about that. I think Avery Young can be a heck of a center. He's one of those few guys that I feel like could be an all-three guy, which in time is going to enhance his pro career. Because I really believe he'll be a pro football player." – J.B. Grimes