The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Could Broderick Jones’ long-term future actually be at right tackle?
By the time this season is over, rookie T Broderick Jones should have 11 starts, including 10 at right tackle, plus anything that might occur in the postseason. He has two games under his belt at right tackle now over the past two weeks.
And, really, he’s looked no worse off for it playing on that side. Perhaps Dan Moore Jr. was right all along in describing him as a natural at it. Though Jones said that he regularly repped at right tackle in practice at Georgia, his actual in-game experience had been highly limited, yet he has taken to it without any evident issues.
And as a practical matter, the Steelers may need him more at right tackle in 2024 than at left tackle. We can reasonably surmise at this point that there’s a high probability of Chukwuma Okorafor being released now that he’s been demoted. Moore will still be under contract, and frankly, he’s given no indications that he can play right tackle.
And Jones is good at it. Quite a bit of the mythos about the right tackle and left tackle positions have fallen by the wayside as pass rushers of equal virtue now play on the defensive left. Likewise, teams don’t as often favor running off the right side of the line as they used to.
In other words, while the left tackle still retains some prestige—just ask Orlando Brown Jr., who basically asked out of Baltimore so he could play left tackle—the playing field has substantially evened out over the course of the past decade or two. Being an elite right tackle is just as valuable as being an elite left tackle.
And what if Jones really is just as good on the right side as he is on the left side, which is looking like might be the case? What difference would it really make? What if he has a year-and-a-half of quality starting experience at right tackle by the time the Steelers can find another option? Are you going to move him then?
This is still quite premature, granted, just 256 snaps into his professional career, but we know he currently has a starting job at right tackle. What if he just stays there?
