All-Pro edge rushers against rookie right tackles. That could be one of the major themes of Monday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns depending upon the availability of Chukwuma Okorafor, the Steelers’ right tackle.
Currently in the concussion protocol, if Okorafor is not cleared for the game in time, the Steelers seem primed to start rookie first-round pick Broderick Jones, who has been getting his first work at right tackle of the year. accordingly, the Browns would have no tape of him working there.
But T.J. Watt and the Steelers will have seen Cleveland’s Dawand Jones working at right tackle, and that is what the former Defensive Player of the Year is studying. Asked how much he goes back to the college tape to prepare for a rookie, he told reporters on Friday that it’s a different game once you’re up at this level.
“When those college guys get under a new coach, you see with Broderick [Jones] here, he’s not really the same player he was in college, just because there’s a whole year of progression”, he said, via the team’s website. “You’re getting coached by so many different people throughout the Combine process and then obviously once you get to where you’re selected to, that coach is going to try to shape you how he wants. So I don’t really look at any college film”.
In Watt’s case, he has 52 snaps in the season opener of Dawand Jones playing right tackle for the Browns and doing so under the watch of offensive line coach Bill Callahan, one of the recognized greats of the position in the league. That is in addition to 223 snaps, all at right tackle, during the preseason.
In other words, there is plenty of tape for Watt to study on his upcoming opponent. That’s less so the case for Myles Garrett if he is going to be playing against Broderick Jones, who has zero snaps at right tackle on tape.
He did play 141 snaps, all at left tackle, during the preseason, and he played the final four snaps of the season opener as well after Okorafor left the game. That’s not quite as much, and it’s also not at the position that he is very likely to play should he get called upon.
With that being said, Garrett is actually a pretty solid player overall, all things considered (I am employing understatement here, since sometimes I do have to spell this out), so he may not have to rely on a great deal of film study to prepare for a rookie who did not win a starting job who is playing a position he is not familiar with.
But Watt’s point remains sound as well. These are not the same players they were in college. Working with guys like Pat Meyer and Callahan, in professional offenses, as full-time jobs, it’s a completely different ball game. They are technically still rookies, but these are not college players anymore, with all that entails.
