The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 draft class is shaping up to be quite a special one for the franchise, at least based on early returns.
Rookie offensive tackle Broderick Jones believes that’s a credit to the Steelers’ “highly competitive practices,” which has helped the rookie get up to speed rather quickly, allowing them to grow into their roles and take their games to the next level.
“Just the practices you go to, I feel like they’re competitive,” Jones said to reporters Thursday, according to video via the YouTube page of Amanda Godsey of the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. “Like me going against T.J. [Watt], Alex [Highsmith], you got Joey [Porter Jr.] going against Diontae [Johnson] or George [Pickens].
“You got Keeanu [Benton] going against Mason [Cole] or James [Daniels] or Isaac [Seumalo], so I feel like everybody gets the good, different reps and seeing different people and just getting the feel for the game more. So, just being able to see different styles of play, that helps us a lot.”
Jones isn’t the first Steelers player to praise the Steelers’ ability to create highly competitive practice environments, molding and shaping the team daily, even outside of the training camp setting. For Jones, getting the chance to take on guys like Highsmith and Watt can’t be replicated in games. Chances are, he won’t see anyone better weekly at this point.
For guys like Porter and Benton, getting that work against experienced pieces in practices has them prepare for games.
Porter’s tests in practice against Johnson and Pickens are much more difficult than Benton’s right now, no disrespect to Cole, Daniels or even Seumalo. Porter has to face an elite-level route runner daily and the physical freak who has an absurd catch radius in Pickens. The two have had their battles already that have been momentous.
That work in practice has the young guys ready to step in and play at a high level, and to their credit they’ve shown that throughout the 2023 season. That’s what has the expectations so high for the rookies, and the promise they’ve shown is exciting moving forward. And it all comes back to the work done in practice and the environment created.
