Entering Year 3, all eyes were on Pittsburgh Steelers left tackle Broderick Jones to see if he could take a jump, especially at his natural position.
After spending the first two seasons of his NFL career starting at right tackle, Jones made the switch back to left tackle for the 2025 season, taking over for the departed Dan Moore Jr. At times this season, Jones has shown real promise.
However, consistency is lacking, and in recent weeks, he has started to take a step back. That has former NFL offensive lineman Alex Boone concerned. Appearing on the latest episode of The OLine Committee podcast, Boone raised issues with Jones’ game.
“What’s going on at times at that left tackle position is hard to watch,” Boone said of Jones, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “You’re like, dude…he [Aaron Rodgers] catches the ball and all of a sudden just gets smoked from the left side. And you’re like, ‘okay, that’s not gonna ever happen.’ It’s just a repeated offense over and over, and you’re like, ‘Well, no wonder the offense is sputtering out.’ And Aaron’s already panicked the minute he catches the ball.
“By the third down, he’s running for his life for the rest of the game. And he’s already panicked and everything’s just going sideways.”
Against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football in Week 10, Jones really struggled. It started right away on the first third down of the game, in which Aaron Rodgers evaded a quick pressure allowed inside by Jones and misfired deep for wide receiver DK Metcalf.
Jones lost the rep immediately to Chargers pass rusher Tuli Tuipulotu, causing Rodgers to flush out of the pocket. Of course, if Rodgers and Metcalf are on the same page here and connect on this deep shot, it might be a different game. But they didn’t, and it was the start of a downward spiral in the game for the Steelers’ offense.
The issues in pass protection were at the heart of it. Jones played 52 snaps against the Chargers and allowed three pressures. On the season, Jones has played 518 snaps and has been charged with 21 pressures and six sacks allowed.
Things haven’t gone all that well in his first season at left tackle in the NFL. Though Rodgers has expressed a belief in Jones over and over again, Jones’ play has been a real issue. He holds a grade of just 55.1 overall from Pro Football Focus, and his efficiency in true pass blocking (91.4) is concerning.
He ranks 52nd out of 57 qualified tackles in pass blocking grade, too.
The Steelers will have a decision to make on Jones this offseason based on his fifth-year option. The way things are going right now, it seems highly unlikely the Steelers will pick that up. There’s still time for him to turn it around, but coming off the loss to the Chargers and the performance Jones had, things aren’t trending in the right direction..
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