It just never clicked.
That’s the best way I can describe Broderick Jones’ time with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The very first draft pick of the Omar Khan era was thought to be the future of the Steelers at left tackle. It never materialized and yesterday Khan finally admitted he got it wrong. Jones was sent to the Dallas Cowboys along with a fourth round pick in exchange for a third and a sixth.
Jones was a young, largely inexperienced player from Georgia. The upside however was off the charts. Mike Tomlin and the Steelers believed his athleticism would easily translate to not just playing left tackle, but right tackle as well. That… was exactly the problem in my opinion. Instead of locking Jones in at left tackle, the Steelers, who value versatility along their offensive line, chose to play him at right tackle.
The musical chairs never stopped and then when the team drafted Troy Fautanu, Jones was sent back to the left side. He appeared to be making strides as the 2025 season went on but then he suffered a stinger. That ‘stinger’ turned out to be much more than that. Jones had spinal fusion surgery ending his season. Surprisingly, he was ready to go for Training Camp this summer.
It was expected that he would start slowly and he did but improvement just never came. There were moments in all three preseason games where he was beaten badly. Whether to the inside, outside or by pure strength, Jones was losing to guys who were second, third and fourth string guys. In Buffalo, there was one play where he was beaten so badly to the inside that the defender nearly met the handoff in the backfield. That may not have been the clincher for the Steelers but it sure didn’t help.
What the Steelers do now is a bit uncertain. They have Fautanu at left tackle and Dylan Cook at right but who is the swing tackle? It’s not Rookie Max Iheanachor who is exclusively a right tackle. So reading the tea leaves, if they don’t make any further moves then I think they’ll start Iheanachor and use Cook as the swing guy. Not sure what else they can do with the current roster.
As for the postscript on Jones and the Steelers, it’s easy to look at the young man and suggest it was his fault. Making the transition shouldn’t have been this hard and maybe he didn’t do enough or work hard enough to make it happen. Maybe there’s some truth to that but I lean the other way. Jones entered the league as a left tackle and the Steelers thought they knew better. His position coaches were lousy and Mike Tomlin never seemed to grasp that Jones just wasn’t acclimating to the switch.
It’s never easy to part ways so early in the career of a former first round draft pick but the Steelers needed to for themselves and for Jones. He needed a fresh start as badly as they did because it was never going to click here in Pittsburgh.
