Recently coming off of a season-ending injury, surgery, and recovery timeline from last season, Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive tackle Broderick Jones has had an up-and-down training camp and preseason.
Most recently, he struggled in Week 2 of the preseason against the New York Jets at home, getting beat for a pair of sacks. A first-round draft pick out of the University of Georgia, Jones finds himself in a murky situation where he’s battling for a starting tackle position in the last year of his rookie contract (his fifth year being declined). Playing both left and right tackle has been a consistent theme through the summer, but it’s something he prefers not to do more of.
“I would rather not,” Jones stated via Brendan Howe. “Me coming back from injury, I would rather not swing like that. I would rather stick to one side and just continue to focus on that one side, but wherever the team needs me — that’s right and left — I just gotta continue to get better so I can help my team.”
If he were to choose between the two, Jones says he’d choose the left side, as that is his more natural spot and, being already accustomed to it, having played there before going down for the year on the road in Week 12 against the Chicago Bears. He played on the right side of the offensive line as a rookie before moving to left tackle.
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