With all of the recent investments the Pittsburgh Steelers have made in offensive line, the 2024 season was a disappointment for the group. It’s hard to blame rookies Zach Frazier or Mason McCormick, but second-year OT Broderick Jones should have been a bigger part of the solution. The Steelers traded up for him in 2023, and players are expected to make a big leap in their play from Year 1 to Year 2. Jones showed some promise down the stretch in his rookie season, but it wasn’t pretty in Year 2.
He finished the season stronger than he started, but it was basically impossible to get any worse than how he looked until the bye week. He allowed a lot of sacks and pressures, committed a lot of penalties, and failed to sustain blocks in the running game. There were very few positives to take away.
“When you spend your No. 14 overall pick on a franchise left tackle, you need that guy to work out and through two seasons — listen, Broderick Jones hasn’t had a chance to play on the left side due to circumstances and really due to his performance. He needs to step up,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo said via the North Shore Drive podcast on YouTube. “There aren’t gonna be any more excuses.”
Perhaps the minor injuries that he was playing through in 2024 were part of the problem. Others have consistently pointed to the fact that he is playing out of his natural left tackle spot. Just look at Kevin Dotson after he left Pittsburgh and went back to his natural side at guard, for example. Could Jones experience something similar?
Early in the 2024 season, Jones played with his elbows out far too wide, consistently surrendering his chest to edge rushers. He wasn’t timing his punches or placing them well at all. The few times he was, he wasn’t showing good enough latch strength to sustain blocks. There was also a big issue with penalties early in the season.
Jones was charged with allowing 10 sacks in 2024, which ranked 139th of 141 OTs, according to Pro Football Focus. He also committed 10 penalties, which was near the bottom of the league as well. Is all of that going to be fixed by playing on the left side again? At this point, Jones has more experience at right tackle than he ever did on the left side in college.
“I think the potential is there for him to be an impact player, but you kind of get the feeling, don’t you, that 2025 has to be the year,” Fittipaldo said. “Because at the end of next season, they’re gonna have to make a call on him. Are they gonna pick up his fifth-year option? Or really, are you back to square one?”
Pittsburgh hasn’t had the greatest track record with fifth-year options lately, and it would be a shame for that to continue into Omar Khan’s selections as its general manager.
The Steelers can’t afford to keep spinning their wheels with the offensive line. The best way to ensure that a young quarterback is successful is by giving him a good offensive line and a good running game. If they try to throw another first-round quarterback at the problem, chances are good that they will set his development back with a poor supporting cast. The 2025 season is huge for Broderick Jones and the future of the Steelers’ offensive line.
