The Pittsburgh Steelers have now sent George Pickens and Broderick Jones to the Dallas Cowboys in consecutive offseasons, which is a pretty strange way to revive one of the NFL's great old grudges.
Pittsburgh officially cut its losses on Broderick Jones over the weekend, sending Jones and a 2027 fourth-round pick to Dallas for a third and sixth. That sixth-rounder? It's the same pick the Steelers surrendered in last year's Pickens deal.
So, yes, the Cowboys are apparently building a little Steelers alumni chapter in Texas. Nearly 50 years after Pittsburgh beat Dallas in Super Bowls 10 and 13, Jerry Jones' team is collecting former Steelers.
Broderick Jones following George Pickens to Dallas comes with one familiar problem
Pickens certainly gave his old Georgia teammate a reason to feel good about the move. After leaving Pittsburgh, the receiver exploded for 93 catches, 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns in 2025, a breakout that made the George Pickens trade look more frustrating by the week from Pittsburgh's side.
“Seeing what George did last year just gave me a boost, especially coming to the same team,” Jones said Monday. Pickens was also the first person he contacted after the trade. His response was appropriately brief: “Let's get it, man.”
It's a fun reunion. The two played together at Georgia, won the 2021 national championship, and later spent three seasons together in Pittsburgh.
But the 25-year-old Jones isn't walking into quite the same dream setup Pickens found.
According to Dallas Sports Journal's Grant Afseth, Brian Schottenheimer has Jones competing for the starting right tackle job, while Jones says he's only around 85 to 90 percent physically after spinal fusion surgery.
And right tackle is where this starts sounding all too familiar.
The Steelers spent Jones' first two seasons mostly on the right side, even though his natural position is left tackle, which he played at Georgia throughout his career. Still Curtain was asking why Pittsburgh wouldn't move Jones left back in 2024. When Pittsburgh finally did it in 2025, he played all 603 of his offensive snaps there before the neck injury ended his season.
Jones himself told Dallas reporters that left is his “more natural side.”
Maybe Dallas unlocks another former Steeler, and Pittsburgh gets to watch Pickens and Jones thrive together under that obnoxious blue star. That would be painfully on-brand.
But if the Cowboys' fresh start for Jones begins by moving him right back to right tackle, Steelers Nation has already seen this movie.
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