Steelers Training Camp Stats trades
Steelers Training Camp Stats trades
The good news. The Pittsburgh Steelers got something for their 2023 first-round and 2025 third-round selections, OT Broderick Jones and RB Kaleb Johnson.
The bad news. The Pittsburgh Steelers had to get something for their 2023 first-round and 2025 third-round selections, OT Broderick Jones and RB Kaleb Johnson.
It’s the push and pull of a missed draft pick. The upside in cutting losses and getting something in return. The reminder of these picks not becoming who the team hoped they’d be on draft night.
Broderick Jones was supposed to be a franchise left tackle. Kaleb Johnson was supposed to be a downhill runner and strong scheme fit. Neither of those things came to pass. When push came to shove, the Steelers avoided the dreaded “sunk cost fallacy.” The trappings of there’s so much invested, we can’t give up.
Plenty of virtual ink has been spent litigating the reasons why Jones and Johnson failed in Pittsburgh. There’s always a combination of factors: scouting misevaluation, coaching malpractice, schematic misalignment. All of the above apply to both players.
No matter the reason, the Steelers faced their reality. Jones, if not traded, may have made the 53-man roster. Still, he is in the last year of his rookie deal, wasn’t going to start, and could have soon lost his top swingman status. All it would have taken is Max Iheanachor starting over Dylan Cook to send Cook into that role and Jones into deep-reserve territory.
Johnson’s situation was cut and dry. A clean slate with a new coaching staff also meant he was off scholarship. He tumbled down the depth chart in training camp and wasn’t going to make the team. Instead of cutting him, the Steelers dealt him for a late-round 2028 pick.
Getting a pick is better than nothing, but the focus here should be Pittsburgh’s willingness to admit its errors. A new coaching staff made that easier, but some teams will still be stubborn about it.
These mistakes cost Pittsburgh. In Omar Khan’s four draft classes, the Steelers have spent three first-round selections on offensive tackles. That math isn’t ideal.
Trading Johnson has felt less consequential but more immediate with even less return than Jones. He’s the team’s first top-100 pick who failed to make the roster in his second season since OG Kraig Urbik in 2010 and has the second-fewest carries of any Steelers back holding that status since the merger. Only Laverne Smith, a fourth-round pick but 99th selection in 1977, had fewer than Johnson’s 28. Khan and company share the blame even while getting credit for making these moves.
Still, Khan’s draft classes have been a clear improvement over Kevin Colbert’s final versions. Pittsburgh is returning to its draft-develop-retain roots that built past contenders. When the Steelers have missed, they aren’t refusing to admit it. The franchise is moving on. Not hanging on.