The Pittsburgh Steelers selected two offensive linemen in the 2023 draft: Georgia’s Broderick Jones with the 14th pick in round one and Maryland’s Spencer Anderson with the 251st pick in the seventh round. Following my 2022 and 2021 studies on Jones, and 2022 article on Anderson (when he primarily played guard) using Sports Info Solutions (SIS), today’s study will look at 2020 and 2021 PFF blocking grades. I’ll focus on players that heard their names called in the draft and had the highest snap totals at tackle.
This includes the Steelers draftees, with Jones spending all his time at tackle (primarily on the left side), while Anderson played all of his tackle opportunities on the right along with time at center. The goal is to see how they stacked up amongst their peers.
Let’s start with the 2021 grades:
The strongest individual grade in 2021 came from Anderson, with an 86 pass block grade which ranked solidly at fourth among the 24 qualifying players. This aligns with his reputation as a stronger pass blocker and encouragingly fared even better than I expected. Run blocking was a different story, though, grading out at 56.3 which was the third-lowest mark (22nd). Anderson played in all 12 regular season games and provided 866 total snaps, including 564 at right tackle and 301 at center, important context as we consider the grades. Jones was above the mean in run blocking (72.4) ranking 10th, but a below-average 73 pass block grade (16th). This came on 392 snaps (382 at left tackle) in nine games played, so a bit lower in the results than desired for the first-round selection.
Here are the grades for the 2020 season:
Jones landed above the mean in both data points, with a particularly strong 87.3 run block grade that ranked second out of the 21 qualifying players, along with a 70.9 pass block grade that ranked eighth. The caveat is this coming on a very low 25 snaps though, which highlights inexperience compared to other draftees overall. This includes Anderson, who had 308 snaps in 2020 and 2,021 total snaps in the last three seasons, compared to Jones’ 1,147.
While my goal is not to unfairly compare the quality of play between a first and seventh-round pick, we see Anderson provided more versatility and experience that Pittsburgh found attractive. His 73.4 run block grade was the strongest of his college career in 2020, which was above the mean and ranked seventh, while his 65.2 pass block grade was below average at 15th, which was the lowest mark in his final three seasons, playing 240 snaps at right tackle and 66 center snaps.
To close, I wanted to provide a table for the Steelers draft picks, including pass block (PB) and run block (RB) grades, along with their snap totals for each season for a more cumulative view. I’ve colored the results to see each player’s trends in each stat for the last three seasons:
Jones had the desired positive trajectory in pass block grade each year (85.4, 73, and 70.9) as his snaps increased (730, 392, 25). His best year as a pass blocker came in 2020 (87.3) in a low sample-sized season, while posting 73.8 and 72.4 numbers his final two seasons, and encouraging to see the slight uptick in 2022 as opportunities substantially grew. An encouraging aspect for Jones is his grades never dipped below 70, which is a respectable mark in my opinion. Anderson fell below that grade three times, with a 65.2 pass block grade in 2020, 56.3 2021 run block grade, and 54.6 run block grade last season.
This highlights a notable downtrend for him each season in run blocking as he played more and had more sporadic trends overall. Anderson’s strongest marks were an 86 pass block grade in 2021, a 73.4 run block grade in 2020, and the most snaps in 2021 (866) followed by slightly fewer snaps last year (847).
Largely encouraging results for Jones, with an overall lack of snap experience a concern. Hopefully he can impress in training camp and earn the starting left tackle job out of the gate, considering the high draft capital and Pittsburgh trading up to acquire him. The Pittsburgh Steelers of course revamped the offensive line for 2023, with several players ahead of Anderson on the depth chart. This this will hopefully be a good situation for him to learn behind the experience in front of him to hone his craft for possible opportunities in the future (barring injury). One thing’s for sure, I’m very excited to see how it pans out for them as they embark on their NFL journey.
What are your thoughts on the results? How do you think Broderick Jones and Spencer Anderson will fare in their rookie years? Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
