It doesn’t sound like a week of rest and ice pack will do the trick to cure whatever ails Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive tackle Broderick Jones. Despite wearing a bulky arm brace that weighs as much as Scotty Miller and a clearly impacted and poor performance this summer, Jones isn’t making excuses for his performance. Nor is he predicting himself to be 100 percent anytime soon.
After declining to speak with the media following Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, Jones spoke with reporters today and downplayed his injury.
“I’m as healthy as I’m gonna get,” Jones said via Pat McAfee correspondent Mark Kaboly.
The Trib’s Chris Adamski shared a few more quotes, Jones saying the injury was “nothing major” but noting there were “multiple things” he was dealing with.
It appears the elbow is one of them, wearing the brace for most of camp. Appearing on McAfee’s show Tuesday afternoon, Kaboly speculated Jones may also be dealing with a thumb injury, though he couldn’t confirm it. And per the PPG’s Ray Fittipaldo, Jones dismissed the idea flipping between left and right tackle is the root cause of the problem.
Jones has struggled mightily in pass protection this summer and was especially poor in the team’s preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, one key reason why the starting offense struggled to move the ball. He allowed two of the three sacks Russell Wilson took and allowed Justin Fields to get crunched later in the game, leading to an incompletion.
In our video breakdown, we pointed to Broderick Jones shooting his hands late in pass protection and missing his punch, his hands too wide and struggling to create the “first significant contact” OL Coach Pat Meyer preaches. While the Steelers’ handling of Jones has been aggravating and scatter-brained, it’s not the reason why he’s struggling so much. His injury
With Troy Fautanu poised to return to the lineup in Week 1, Jones should shift over to the left side. Whether or not he starts is an open question as he battles Dan Moore Jr. It would be disappointing for Jones, the Steelers first round pick who they traded up for in April of 2023, to begin 2024 on the bench. But based on his play, it might be the best decision for the team to make.
