The Pittsburgh Steelers bested the Jets in Week 1, but one of the major talking points centered around the disastrous play of offensive tackle Broderick Jones. After another offseason hyping up his improvements and the coveted move back to the left side of the line, it seemed like he was poised to show some growth.
That was until the offense took their first snaps of the game.
To be fair, Jones wasn’t bad on every rep. In fact, you could probably count his total good reps above his total bad ones. Unfortunately, when it was bad, it was horrendous. It cost the Steelers, as he gave up three sacks.
The rest of the line didn’t play particularly well either, but Jones easily had the highest profile issues. The handful of plays he got beaten, it wasn’t even close.
This was a known issue beforehand, as Jones has always been a hot-and-cold player. Despite all this, the Steelers refused to provide some legitimate competition for him this offseason. Now, they are forced to face the music and deal with the consequences.
The Pittsburgh Steelers wrongly attached their saddle to Broderick Jones
While giving Jones every opportunity to play this season was always going to happen, the team should have been better prepared behind him.
The only notable move at offensive tackle was bringing back last year’s swing tackle in Calvin Anderson. While he played ok in limited action, no one was confusing him with a starting-caliber player.
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There were plenty of options in free agency to choose from. The Steelers wouldn’t have even had to spend top dollar to land a capable name. This would have been a small insurance in case either tackle failed.
Now, it feels like the team is stuck with Jones for better or for worse. Unless he absolutely craters, he still presents a better option than Anderson. It would have to get pretty ugly for him to get benched.
It didn’t have to be like this, though. One simple free agent addition or even a notable draft pick would have sufficed. Instead, left tackle remains a massive question mark moving forward.
Even if Jones doesn’t begin playing better, the Steelers made their bed with him as their starter. They are stuck with him for the foreseeable future.