Player: Broderick Jones
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Broderick Jones lost his starting job in Week 2, and then the Steelers benched him. He began Sunday’s game in a rotation with Troy Fautanu at right tackle, but didn’t make it through one drive. In a span of six snaps, he drew three separate penalties. Head coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday he will have a chance to rebound, but what will that look like?
The Steelers traded up from 17 to 14 in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft to ensure that Broderick Jones did not get away from them. While they knew he was raw, he started the majority of his rookie season at right tackle. Two games into his second season, he is already demoted.
Since then, the Steelers used another first-round pick on a tackle in Troy Fautanu. Fautanu’s pace of development has had a lot to do with Jones’ trajectory because Jones is the only tackle the Steelers view as movable—able to play the left or right side. They wanted to move Jones to the left side once Fautanu was settled at right tackle.
But the Steelers haven’t been able to sufficiently work Broderick Jones at left tackle where Dan Moore Jr. is established. Moore is generally holding his own this year and causing no immediate need for a change.
So the Steelers thought it would be a good idea to plug Fautanu into the starting lineup, allowing Jones to rotate in. They evidently planned for Jones to play every third series, but Tomlin had to cut it short. He played 11 snaps, during the final six of which he drew three flags. That included two holding penalties, one of which negated a 51-yard catch.
Tomlin quickly pulled him mid-series after that, but on Tuesday, he promised that Broderick Jones would have a chance to redeem himself. As of this point, we don’t know what that will look like. Does that mean that he will rotate with Fautanu again? Will he rotate with Moore on the left side now, or perhaps on both sides? Will they instead use him as a tackle-eligible tight end, as they frequently have done for developmental tackles?
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
