Player: T Broderick Jones
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The beleaguered second-year tackle played his best game of the season on Sunday. While that’s currently a low bar, the Steelers remain believers in Broderick Jones. Having already lost his starting job once, he is still potentially the Steelers’ future left tackle. For now, though, he has to hold on at right tackle. Jones needs a strong second half of his second season, and this past Sunday against the Commanders was a good start.
Don’t look now but Steelers RT Broderick Jones might finally be coming around. The second-year man played his best game of the season against the Washington Commanders after a rough start. The Steelers hope for better play out of him during the second half of the season, so this is an optimistic beginning.
The Steelers traded up in the first round to draft Broderick Jones 14th overall last year. He started the majority of his rookie season at right tackle with visions of him as their future franchise left tackle. That was the plan they had in mind this offseason when they drafted Troy Fautanu in the first round, but fate had other ideas.
Due to Fautanu’s training camp injury, the Steelers had little time to allow Broderick Jones to practice on the left side, and left tackle Dan Moore Jr. insists that he can’t play on the right. Battling injuries himself, Jones ultimately lost his starting job to Fautanu.
But Fautanu quickly suffered a significant injury, leaving Jones in charge of the right tackle post. And that led to a rough first eight games overall, with some highs and lows. Most recently, he robbed the Steelers of a touchdown due to an unnecessary facemask penalty in Week 8.
That’s one of the reasons his improved play this past week against the Commanders was a welcome site. While Jones isn’t knocking on the door of the Pro Bowl, improvement is still improvement. And given that they don’t have any other options, the Steelers will take what they can get. The potential for Broderick Jones is still sky-high. Let’s see where this stretch leads.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
