Entering the offseason ahead of the 2023 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers felt that the left side of the offensive line needed some serious upgrades. A few months later, consider that a job well done for GM Omar Khan.
The Steelers signed veteran guards Isaac Seumalo and Nate Herbig in free agency, and then traded up in the 2023 NFL Draft to land Georgia left tackle Broderick Jones at No. 14 overall, giving the Steelers a potential stalwart left tackle in front of second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett for the foreseeable future.
Though Jones still needs to beat out the incumbent Dan Moore Jr. for the left tackle job, the selection of Jones was named the Steelers’ “best move of the offseason” by CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin Friday morning.
Drafting Jones after moving up in the first round means that the Steelers are rightly committed to shoring up the front for young QB Kenny Pickett. After plugging the interior with Seumalo, the Steelers have a supremely athletic tackle to mold while leaning on Mike Tomlin’s always-feisty defense,” Benjamin writes for CBSSports.com regarding the Steelers’ best move of the offseason.Â
It has been a busy offseason featuring a number of additions, including the likes of cornerback Patrick Peterson, wide receiver Allen Robinson II, linebacker Cole Holcomb, edge rusher Markus Golden and safety Keanu Neal, but the trade up and subsequent addition of Jones in the first round garnered the best move designation from CBS Sports.
Jones certainly has all the tools with his size, athleticism and overall mentality at the position to be a great one for the Steelers.
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 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, 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.
We’ll see how long it takes him to hit the field with the starters and how he adjusts to the NFL game after just 19 games at Georgia. But based on his traits and overall production in those 19 games in the SEC with Georgia in which he didn’t allow a single sack, he could see the field rather quickly on Pittsburgh’s rebuilt left side next to Seumalo.
