Week 1 of the NFL season is on the horizon and fans are gearing up for a highly-anticipated year of Steelers football. Pittsburgh will begin the 2024 season with a road game against the Atlanta Falcons after a shaky preseason, and everyone is interested to see how the offensive line will look.
On September 3, head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media about his team's upcoming matchup in the season opener. Unsurprisingly, Tomlin was asked about the offensive line depth chart. His response was the opposite of what fans were hoping to hear.
According to Tomlin, the Steelers have made 'no determination' on where Broderick Jones will play this week, per Nick Farabaugh of PennLive.
Mike Tomlin says that there is no decision on which side Broderick Jones will play on Sunday.
— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) September 3, 2024
The lack of decision is an infuriating decision to Steelers fans who have been begging Tomlin to play 2023 first-round pick at left tackle -- the position Jones played all through high school and his college career at Georgia.
Instead, we are expecting the opposite to happen.
When asked about Broderick, Tomlin leaned toward another response nobody wanted to hear. The Steelers head coach noted the work he has put in at right tackle this summer and that 'versatility is an asset'.
Mike Tomlin on where Broderick Jones will play:
— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) September 3, 2024
"I've made no determination regarding that. Obviously, he's worked a lot at right but that's something we'll watch as we progress through the week because versatility has been an asset for him and us."
But what versatility is that, exactly? Jones got his teeth kicked in at right tackle during the preseason, and the team expressed early in the offseason how they wanted to move him back to left tackle. This hasn't happened and we're not expecting it to happen in Week 1.
Sadly, this wasn't the only questionable offensive line decision Tomlin expressed to the media. In addition to playing Broderick out of position, Tomlin confirmed that Spencer Anderson will start at left guard with Isaac Seumalo injured.
Anderson was humiliated in the preseason finale and has rarely played left guard this summer. Meanwhile, the Steelers drafted a more talented Mason McCormick in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft who has taken snaps almost exclusively at left guard since OTAs.
Mike Tomlin's depth chart decisions could hurt the Steelers beyond Week 1
When it comes to making short-sighted football decisions, Mike Tomlin is the king of the world. Not many head coaches would be willing to stunt the development of their raw first-round pick in his first two seasons, but that is precisely what Tomlin has done with Broderick Jones.
Instead of booting Dan Moore Jr. from the lineup and playing Jones at his natural position, he was drafted to play, Tomlin has Jones fighting with rookie first-round pick Troy Fautanu for the starting right tackle job, and leaving Moore with zero competition at left tackle.
His decision to deploy Spencer Anderson isn't quite as egregious. Anderson is in his second season. However, the Maryland product never logged an offensive snap as a rookie and McCormick appears to be more ready to play from the gate. Like Jones, Anderson has been stretched thin during his first two summers with the team -- playing multiple spots along the offensive line.
The indecisiveness of where to play Jones and the decision to give Anderson valuable left guard snaps over McCormick shows Tomlin would attempt to give himself a minuscule advantage in the present at the risk of sabotaging the development of his players for the future.
I don't agree with these depth chart decisions.
The answer is simple: plug Broderick in at left tackle and McCormick at left guard; play Fautanu at right tackle and let Moore -- the player the Steelers tried so desperately to replace -- be the swing tackle.
Mike Tomlin has overthought the whole offensive line situation from day one. Now the Pittsburgh Steelers have a jumbled mess in the trenches as they gear up for the season opener against the Falcons.