The Broderick Jones experience in Year 2 has been a bit of a mess for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and for the former standout Georgia offensive lineman.
His struggles continued Monday night in the first half against the New York Giants as Jones had a facemask penalty wipe out a touchdown to George Pickens on the first drive of the game. Later in the first half, Jones allowed a sack, and then on another play he was blown up on a draw play, resulting in a tackle for loss.
That led to respected offensive line guru Duke Manyweather to take to Twitter and give his thoughts on Broderick Jones and his play this season. They weren’t pretty, either.
He’s not wrong, either.
Jones is an uber-talented player, one the Steelers believed would be a franchise cornerstone when they traded up in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft to leap ahead of the New York Jets and land him with the 14th overall pick. As a rookie, Jones got off to a strong start, but his second season has been a mess, even with head coach Mike Tomlin stating last week that Jones is trending in the right direction.
It started right away in the preseason as Jones was a disaster against the Buffalo Bills, leading to questions about his physicality and his effort. Though he vowed to correct that and stated he needed to just bring more physicality and take the fight to defenders, that hasn’t exactly been the case during the season.
He’s even taken to social media to clap back at fans for criticism, as the season has snowballed on him.
Entering the Week 8 Monday Night Football matchup against the Giants, Broderick Jones has been one of the worst tackles in football. Jones currently has a grade of 44.3 overall from Pro Football Focus, including a 53.1 run blocking grade and a 39.2 pass blocking grade.
Jones had allowed 17 pressures and six sacks coming into Week 8, and he didn’t do anything to correct that against the Giants in the first half, struggling against the likes of former Steelers defensive lineman Armon Watts, as well as pass rushers Brian Burns and Azeez Ojulari.
He’s had poor technique in pass protection, hasn’t been very physical in the run game, and is now having his effort questioned. It’s been a lost second season for Jones, who is a mess week after week. It’s rather discouraging.
Hopefully he can turn it around because, as Manyweather said, he’s too talented to be playing like this and looking the way he does on the field to an outside observer.
