With Broderick Jones’ struggles in Saturday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, the calls for him to return to left tackle, the position he played at Georgia and the position that Steelers brass claims they want him at long-term, have only gotten louder. But former Steelers offensive lineman Trai Essex believes that the issues are more with his power and his punch than anything, and if Jones was to play the same way he did on Saturday on the left side, he’d get “one of our quarterbacks killed.”
“He’s gonna have to punch somebody no matter what side of the ball he lines up on. And that’s the only issue. Because his set was fine. The technique of getting out of his set, his footwork was fine. It was just a physicality thing. I’m gonna punch you before you punch me thing. And if he does that on the left side, he’s gonna get one of our quarterbacks killed. On the right side at least they can see it coming more. So they got the peripherals a little better for them and so he can get bailed out a little bit if he’s making those types of mistakes on the right side. But if he does it on the left side, there’s less room for error and a lot more chance that our quarterbacks can get seriously hurt,” Essex said on The Fan Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan this morning.
It doesn’t seem as if switching sides will magically fix Jones at this point. Even dating back to his time at Georgia, there were questions about his punch and his hand usage, and those issues were on full display against the Bills and Greg Rousseau on Saturday. Ross McCorkle broke down Jones’ pass protection in a must-read film room, and it’s clear as day that Jones just isn’t generating any power from his punch.
In this example, he fails to use independent hands, and without any power behind his two-handed punch, he’s left out to dry immediately when Rousseau simply beats him with a long arm. Pat Meyer preaches using independent hands and making first contact, two things Jones failed to do. The problem with his lack of independent hands is that even when getting two hands on Rousseau, he had absolutely zero power in his punch and Rousseau was essentially able to do whatever he wanted.
Jones has been wearing an elbow brace and supposedly met with the doctor after the game, so it could be a byproduct of a potential injury he’s working through. But the complete lack of power is worrisome. As Essex said, for the most part, Jones’ technique was fine, but the issues with power are a death sentence as an offensive tackle, especially a left tackle. It’s just something that simply can’t continue, and if Jones continues to struggle, it’s not going to be pretty up front for the Steelers offensive line.
His play put the Steelers in some tough situations and got the offense behind schedule, and hopefully, it was just a one-game blip and not a continual issue. We haven’t heard any injury update on Jones and we’ll see if he’s practicing today as Pittsburgh returns to the practice field ahead of their preseason finale against the Detroit Lions. But Jones’ play right now is worrisome, and it needs to be figured out ahead of the regular season.
