Though he still has to win the starting left tackle job in a hotly contested positional battle coming up in training camp, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie offensive tackle Broderick Jones has quite a bit of hype and expectations surrounding him entering his first NFL season.
NFL.com draft analyst Chad Reuter projected Jones to be one of two offensive tackles on the NFL’s Offensive All-Rookie Team Monday morning, joining fellow first-round offensive tackle Darnell Wright of the Chicago Bears.
Jones was the fourth offensive tackle taken in the draft behind Arizona’s Paris Johnson Jr., Tennessee’s Peter Skoronski, and Wright, yet beats out two of the three ahead of him to land on Reuter’s projected All-Rookie team.
“Left tackle was a major issue for the Steelers last year but it won’t be in 2023 if Jones uses his athleticism to play balanced in pass pro and gets after this man in the run game,” Reuter writes highlighting Jones for his All-Rookie team projection. “It might take him two or three games to get used to the speed and power of veteran edge rushers, but he’ll eventually find his groove.”
Jones certainly has all the tools with his size, athleticism and overall mentality at the position.
He’s a mauler in the run game, one who moves extremely well and can climb to the second level or get out in space to really lay the wood to a defender, springing the running back. He has light feet in pass protection as well and moves quite well in his pass sets. That said, he needs to continue to develop his hand usage and has a tall task in front of him of truly grasping offensive line coach Pat Meyer’s independent hand usage technique for offensive linemen in pass protection.
Pittsburgh made the move on draft night to go up and get Jones, trading from #17 to #14 to take him, the first offensive tackle the Steelers have taken in the first round since 1996. The trade up for Jones was lauded overall as the Steelers got one of the best left tackles in the draft class, providing protection for quarterback Kenny Pickett long-term in the process.
