No Pittsburgh Steeler is facing the type of pressure that OT Broderick Jones is feeling heading into 2025. A third-year player and former first-round pick flipping back to left tackle, a good year from Jones will prove why GM Omar Khan made him his first draft selection. A bad year will be the latest of first-round misses. Former Steelers offensive lineman Trai Essex outlined where Jones must get better to make 2025 a year to remember for all the right reasons.
“We have to hone in those mental errors,” Essex told Arthur Moats for his YouTube channel. “I’m not concerned about Broderick physically. Physically, he’s strong. He’s aggressive, he does have that dog in him. It’s about pointing that dog in the right spot. Every single play, consistently. And not having these lapses in judgment that ultimately hurt him and hurt the team.”
Jones was an underdeveloped prospect when Pittsburgh traded up three spots in the 2023 NFL Draft to acquire him, the first leg in the Steelers’ initiative to boost an offensive line that had been ignored for too long. After a promising rookie season, Jones regressed as a sophomore. Injuries played a role but the mental errors, entirely within Jones’ control, were problematic. Whether it was not knowing the snap count or the play, Jones was hard to trust and likely would’ve lost his job at right tackle had rookie Troy Fautanu not been lost for the season.
Though Essex seemed uncertain in his conversation, GM Omar Khan confirmed Broderick Jones would move over to left tackle and replace the departed Dan Moore Jr. Perhaps a shift back to his college spot will help but that alone can’t excuse Jones’ poor play. If his mental issues and lack of focus continue, it won’t matter where Pittsburgh lines him up.
Another bad year from Jones will lead the Steelers to decline his fifth-year option. And leave them searching for a left tackle in 2026. If other pieces of Pittsburgh’s young offensive line also falter, they’ll have wasted two years of draft investments and need to start again along with everything else that needs addressed (quarterback, an aging defense). That could truly set the franchise back, even more than after missing on QB Kenny Pickett in 2022.
