Once viewed as a potential first-round pick, Dawand Jones fell to the Cleveland Browns all the way in Round Four. The hulking, 6-8 tackle nevertheless entered the starting lineup as a rookie due to injury and played well. He started 9 of 11 games at right tackle before himself suffering a knee injury—as did their other tackles.
Both LT Jedrick Wills Jr. and RT Jack Conklin suffered MCL injuries that ended their seasons, the latter in the first game of the season. Jones filled in for the remainder of that game and for the rest of the year leading up to his injury. With both Wills and Conklin returning from injury, the question becomes where Jones fits—literally, where.
Indeed, reporters asked general manager Andrew Berry about that during the annual league meetings. While he has minimal experience at left tackle, could he potentially play there? Berry gave an indirect, albeit interesting, response.
“I think I said this in 2020 where tackles are tackles”, Chris Easterling quotes him as saying. “I think the distinction between left tackle and right tackle is obsolete. We’re in a division where T.J. Watt plays on our offensive right the entire game. It’s not really a lot that we’ve talked about. We’re pleased with Dawand in terms of where he is. But like I said, I think the distinction of left and right tackle is obsolete”.
Jones was pretty confident about his ability to face Watt last year prior to making his first career start.
While it’s true that the challenges right tackles face have largely grown equal to that of left tackles, true player ambidexterity is another matter. Not everybody who plays on the right side can play on the left, or vice versa.
The Pittsburgh Steelers know this well, given their struggles with Kevin Dotson at left guard relative to right. They’re currently pontificating on how to get Broderick Jones to left tackle because Dan Moore Jr. can’t play right tackle.
Now, Jones does have experience playing left tackle at the high school level, which is more than Dotson had. At the college level, however, he played all of 170 snaps at left tackle in his first two seasons. Is that enough to trust him to man the blind side for an oft-injured quarterback in Deshaun Watson?
Well, I think the odds are decent that Conklin is more likely to return to the starting lineup than Wills. He is currently scheduled to play under his fifth-year option in 2024, so he is not under contract beyond that. Conklin is under contract through the 2026 season, by contrast, as is Jones.
Of course, they need everybody to get healthy first before they can consider these questions. At the least, it’s a good problem for them to have right now, figuring how where to put their tackles. The Steelers, meanwhile, are still looking for another tackle.
