Sometimes asking a question is more about getting a response than it is about getting an answer. You’ll see that a lot in press conferences where the function of a question is not to solve a puzzle with new information but merely to get a response on record.
That’s what we find in sports media all the time. Part of the job is asking key questions even when you know you’re not going to get an answer to the question. And that definitely applies to Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and his willingness to assess “football in shorts”.
Fortunately, that period is over, as the next time the team takes the field will be the first day in pads. Asked by a reporter if they should wait to ask for his assessment of rookie first-round pick Broderick Jones in his work with the first-team offense, he responded, via the team’s website, “Yeah, Tuesday would be a good idea”.
It’s a very Tomlin answer, but also not an inappropriate one, especially just on the eve of a more football-like environment. Jones, the 14th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, got his most extensive work with the first-team offense with Chukwuma Okorafor getting a veteran’s day off yesterday—but it was just in helmets.
And it’s been just three days. The first day in pads will tell us as much or more about Jones as we have learned up to this point over the course of the entire offseason. Because it’s a completely different game with pads on.
Especially for a lineman like Jones whose game is so rooted in the physicality of the position, which isn’t always the case for every lineman. It’s one of the qualities that really sold the Steelers on him, so it’s reasonable for Tomlin to want to hold off until they see what they’ve been waiting for.
Of course, the question is what kind of work he sees. I’m going to guess that they are not going to give Okorafor two straight days off, so Jones’ work will probably be mostly with the second-team offense. But he’ll surely get more reps with the starters as camp progresses.
Everybody knows—including incumbent Dan Moore Jr.—that the intention is for Jones to start at left tackle sooner rather than later. The only question is how soon the soon is. Will that be the first week of the regular season? Will it be after the bye week? Will it be next year?
We may have a much better sense of the timeline starting tomorrow when we finally get a good look at how he moves with pads on in an NFL setting, going up against the likes of Alex Highsmith and Markus Golden off the edge.
