Offensively, not much good came out of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 24-10 embarrassing loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13 at Acrisure Stadium.
The Steelers watched quarterback Kenny Pickett go down with an injury that will sideline him a few weeks. Center Mason Cole couldn’t snap the football all that consistently, and one botched attempt led to a Mitch Trubisky fumble. And after putting up 421 yards of offense one week after firing former offensive coordinator Matt Canada, it was much of the same for the offense again, scoring just 10 points.
Some of the ugly falls on rookie right tackle Broderick Jones. The first-round pick had an inconsistent game against the Cardinals, putting some good reps in the run game on tape but having some struggles there, too. He also had a long day against the speed of Arizona’s pass rushers coming off the edge, struggling with his footwork and hand usage.
Against the Cardinals, Jones played all 61 offensive snaps and graded out at a 62.9 from Pro Football Focus. That includes a 63.5 as a run blocker and a 57.3 in pass protection. He was charged with two pressures on the afternoon, though there were more issues than that in pass protection.
Jones started strong — much like the Steelers’ offense. There was real juice from Jones on the first drive of the game. He was throwing his weight around in the run game and really looked good in pass protection.
He got his hands on Victor Dimukeje and won the rep cleanly, even with Pickett rolling out of the pocket.
The grip strength and ability to control the defender stands out from Jones. He did that a number of times at Georgia. When he gets his hands on you, you aren’t going anywhere.
The only way Dimukeje is able to get off the block and create much of anything from a pass-rush perspective is because Pickett breaks out of the pocket aiming to make a play. Prior to that, Jones has him with vice-grip hands. He’s not going anywhere.
One play later though, things started to come apart for Jones.
Dealing with Dennis Gardeck off the edge, Jones had a rough rep. It was compounded by the low snap from Cole to Pickett, messing up the timing on the play.
Still, Jones has to be better on this rep.
Things start out well individually for him. He gets good depth on his pass set and knows he has running back Jaylen Waren behind him for help.
If you look closely though, it appears that Jones has his left foot stepped on just as Gardeck is trying to bend the edge. That seems to throw Jones off a bit. He is not only getting his foot stepped on, he’s lunging trying to cover the dip and bend from Gardeck.
Obviously he misses the block, and he doesn’t get any help from Warren, either. That allows Gardeck to get a hit on Pickett and force an incompletion.
Jones bounced back a bit on the Steelers’ next drive as Pittsburgh focused on running the football.
He gets a nice block here on the defensive lineman, turning him just enough in the hole to give Warren a lane.
You’ll notice though that Jones stops his feet and just leans on the guy. That allows the defensive lineman to get back into the play and help keep Warren to a short gain. During his time in the lineup, Jones has been a menace as a run blocker, driving his feet looking to finish guys. That was noticeably missing Sunday from the rookie.
Jones had some moments in the run game, though.
Great work on the double here with James Daniels, creating serious movement up front. That’s a monster lane for Najee Harris to work with. Great footwork and drive from Daniels and Jones.
It would have been a big gain if George Pickens had done his job and blocked the corner on the outside.
Granted, you’d love to have Harris one-on-one with a corner in the hole, but still, you need everyone getting a hat on their man. Pickens didn’t.
Arizona doesn’t have any big-name pass rushers that worry teams. They have a lot of bodies they can throw out there, but nobody that you game plan around.
Knowing that, multiple guys gave Jones issues Sunday, most notably Cameron Thomas.
Jones wins the rep early, but then it turns into a hand fight, and Jones is a bit sloppy in his independent hand usage on the rep. Offensive line coach Pat Meyer is big on independent hand usage when blocking, especially in pass protection, to help combat some of the skills defensive linemen are adding to their arsenal.
To Jones’ credit, he’s been generally sound at it all season. But he was sloppy on Sunday. He was late with his outside hand here after Thomas knocked away his inside hand. That allowed Thomas to turn the corner and get upfield to put pressure on Pickett.
Same drive, Gardeck gave him a big shot on the rush, coming from far outside.
Jones gives up some ground here, but still wins the rep. Right before contact though, look at Jones’ posture and footwork. He gets caught between steps and is leaning, leading to Gardeck getting underneath him and nearly putting him into Pickett’s lap. Fortunately, Jones was able to recover, but it’s a moment to learn from for the young offensive lineman when it comes to his footwork and overall positioning.
The Cardinals saw something with that and really started to widen out and use speed against him later in the game.
A few plays later, Jones and tight end Pat Freiermuth weren’t on the same page in the run game.
This is a really tough block to make for a tight end, especially when the defensive lineman is so far down inside on the tackle.
Jones has to do a much better job of getting a chip on the defensive lineman to help the tight end before climbing to the second level.
Instead, Jones dips inside and gets to the second level immediately, leaving Freiermuth on an island in the run game, leading to that defensive lineman making a tackle at the line of scrimmage. You have to win the rep at the line first before climbing to the second level. Jones didn’t do that.
Then, on the failed 4th and one at the goal line, Jones and Daniels struggled on the double team, failing to create much movement, leading to the run stuff and the turnover on downs.
Have to be able to get a yard here. Jones and Daniels aren’t at their best on the rep, but it’s not one I’m going to overly criticize.
My biggest issue on the play is Cole, who stands straight up at the snap and gets bullied at the point of attack. Can’t have that there in that situation.
With a lead and the Steelers needing to be one-dimensional, the Cardinals pinned their ears back against the Steelers and got after it.
Arizona started to use more wide 9 from a pass-rush perspective, especially with EDGE B.J. Ojulari. Jones had some issues.
Not the best pass set. He’s more horizontal than vertical on the set, and when he realizes Ojulari is going with speed to turn the corner, Jones has to nearly cross over his feet to try and get to Ojulari. Nice club/swipe here from Ojulari, too, to stay clean, racing around the corner to put heat on Mitch Trubisky.
Jones has to have a better pass set initially on the rep. It’s a passing situation on third down and you know you have a speed rusher out there.
Similar thing here from Jones later in the game.
He has to do a better job of gaining depth in his pass sets, and he has to move his feet better. He’s still adjusting to right tackle, especially in pass protection, but these issues with speed are going to be exploited moving forward as defenses start to see it show up more and more on tape.
Back to the run game with Jones.
He does a great job here of getting himself between the defender and running back Najee Harris, turning himself to create a lane for Harris to cut up right off his backside.
It’s all well and good. But Jones started to get into some bad habits in this game with his feet. He was just leaning on guys at times, and he did so here. Where is the finish? Where is the nasty mauler we saw throughout the season once he was in the lineup?
I understand defenders are paid, too, and aren’t going to be pushed around easily, but Jones has to drive his feet here and create some movement. That’s what he’s out there for.
That initial cut upfield from Harris got him a bit off-balance, especially hitting Jones’ legs. If Jones gets a bit more movement there, maybe that doesn’t happen. Maybe that turns into an explosive play for Harris.
It was a decent day overall for Jones. There was some good, some bad. Too inconsistent overall though. That’s the next step in Jones’ game: finding that consistency. The tools are there. But Sunday’s game was a good example that he still has a long way to go from a development standpoint.
