Of course they weren't doing it on purpose. They were doing it by mistake. Bates sat for how many years and only because of injury did he finally get to start. Teller traded. And yes Davis was better than Sanders, yes, Lawson was better than Murphy, and yes Singletary was better than Gore. In every case they chose the wrong guy because presumably they wanted experience over a younger guy.
Elam is more physically gifted than Jackson. Just because they want a veteran that may not make more mistakes, still doe not mean it is the correct decision.
Miami game this year. Instead of sliding Bates over to C, they played VanRoten when Morse went down. Bad decision. When Morse had the concussion, they started Bates and the O-line was mostly ok. They learned from their mistakes.