Although he technically started his first game in Week 5, Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 first-round pick Broderick Jones did not enter the starting lineup until Week 9. He competed with Dan Moore Jr. for the starting left tackle job but came up shy at the time. He only took over at right tackle midway through the season, though he played every snap after that point.
Offensive line trainer Duke Manyweather shared his reflections on Broderick Jones’ rookie season and his future forecast for him. Talking to Brian Batko on the Chipped Ham and Football podcast, he declared that Jones “was not ready to play”.
Now, he didn’t say that as a slight, but rather a matter of fact. Not every rookie comes into the league ready to start right away, and Jones had limited experience in college. I don’t think anybody clutched their pearls when Jones began his rookie season as a backup.
“You can physically be “pro ready”, but to be truly pro ready, there is no such thing”, Manyweather said. “There’s a mental component that comes with that. There is the physical component, and then there’s just steadfastness that’s needed as well”.
He said that a lot of players experience a “rude awakening” making the transition from college to the NFL. They believe in their own hype and think they’ll have the same success they had right away against professionals. Now, he didn’t specifically say that Broderick Jones felt this way, but I imagine most rookies have some eye-opening moment. After all, we have a name for it: the “Welcome to the NFL” moment.
“Schematic-wise and coaching- and technique-wise, you’re gonna be asked to do new things that maybe are not within your comfort zone”, Manyweather said of some of the challenges rookies face, “and so you’ve got to find that happy medium of giving the coaching staff what they want while also showing them how you do things. And when you show them how you do things, you’ve got to be able to win”.
While he took half a season to crack the starting lineup, however, he earned his place once entrenched. Many credit Jones for helping to boost the run game in the second half of the year. “I think the way Broderick [Jones] finished the season, Steelers fans should be pretty excited for the future there”, Manyweather said.
Of course, Manyweather is also high on Moore for the 2024 season, and has trained him for the last few years. But there seems to be a good chance only one of them is in the starting lineup. If the Steelers draft a player who can start at right tackle, Jones figures to usurp Moore at left tackle.
Now, that rookie may not, like Jones, start immediately at right tackle for the Steelers. In that scenario, they may leave Moore and Jones where they are until the rookie is ready. Or perhaps they move Jones and force Moore to the right side. Time will tell, of course; first, they actually need another player who can play right tackle.
