An NFL season can often be a tale of two halves. The first half of the season, players are settling in physically and mentally, kinks are being ironed out, and a groove is being settled into.
The second half of a season, well that’s where players — and teams — can really start to take off, or fold.
For the Pittsburgh Steelers, they happened to do both in the second half of the season. After taking off and getting hot, especially after Week 7, they cratered down the stretch, losing five straight games and bowing out of the AFC Wild Card Round in embarrassing fashion.
Within those highs and lows in the second half of the season, a pair of players for the Black and Gold made improvement, earning the distinction of second-half risers from Pro Football Focus.
That would be running back Jaylen Warren and right tackle Broderick Jones. Warren shook off some early-season injury issues and became a key component down the stretch for the Steelers’ offense. Jones bounced back from a dreadful training camp, preseason and early start to the season to play relatively well down the stretch.
“Jaylen Warren had a breakout year in 2023 but saw his production dip due to injuries at the start of the 2024 season. The former undrafted free agent had just 151 yards and averaged 3.7 yards per attempt in the first half of the season,” PFF’s Thomas Valentine writes. “However, it was business as usual from Week 10 onwards, as Warren rushed for 360 yards and forced 24 missed tackles, the 14th-most among running backs.”
Warren got off to a slow start due to the hamstring injury suffered during the preseason and then the knee injury he battled through in the first stretch of the season. Once he put those injuries behind him, Warren was back to his usual self.
Three times in the second half of the season Warren rushed for more than 5.0 yards per carry, doing so in Week 8 against the New York Giants, Week 14 against the Cleveland Browns and Week 17 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
During that stretch, he looked quite healthy, running with good burst and providing the Steelers with an effective, change-of-pace running back who ripped off some big runs and gave the offense a spark.
Now, he enters the offseason as potentially the Steelers’ top running back in 2025 with Najee Harris set to hit free agency after his fourth straight 1,000-yard season.
Along with Warren’s second-half bounce back, PFF also highlighted Jones for his steady play in the second half of the season.
“Jones’ first two seasons in the NFL haven’t been easy. The Steelers’ 2023 first-round pick allowed seven sacks in the first half of the season, more than any other tackle in the NFL, and his 40.7 pass-blocking grade was bottom-10 in the NFL — any improvement would be a bonus,” Valentine writes. “Jones allowed just three sacks in the next nine games, and his 70.9 run-blocking grade was 25th among tackles.”
After struggling in the preseason and then being benched in Week 2 in Denver, Jones improved and got better in the second half of the season. Though he took strides, Jones still allowed the second-most sacks in the NFL in 2024 with 12, behind only Steelers LT Dan Moore Jr.
Jones allowed just three sacks in the second half of the season, but he still struggled in pass protection. From Week 10 on, Jones allowed 22 of his 43 pressures on the season.
In the playoff loss to the Ravens, Jones allowed another two pressures and a sack, including one where he was beat by speed around the edge by Baltimore’s Odafe Oweh on a rep in which Jones seemingly had no shot.
He took strides as a run blocker and played with an edge, often mixing it up with opponents and creating a chippy environment. But there are real concerns about Jones in pass protection moving forward, especially as he appears set to move back to left tackle in 2025.
