Saunders: Switch to Left Tackle Won’t Be Magic Fix for Broderick Jones
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers are moving Broderick Jones to left tackle for the 2025 season, and Jones seems pretty happy about that.
Jones, the team’s first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, never complained about spending his first two seasons at right tackle, and steadfastly refused to blame his struggles over those season on him playing a new positions.
But it’s always been clear that Jones wanted to be on the left side. He also said on Wednesday that it feels more natural for him to play there.
“It does,” Jones said. “When they initially moved me to right tackle and then I played there for so long and then they tried to make me like the swing tackle, it was kinda funky. But, I knew I would be going back to left.”
It’s good to be comfortable, certainly. And there are instances when a player’s comfort should matter. But when it comes to whether Jones will work out for the Steelers, the switch from right to left is not going to be some kind of magic bullet that solves all his problems.
Through two seasons, Jones has struggled in pass protection — an area that was obviously not his strength coming out of Georgia. He allowed 11 sacks last season, according to charting by Pro Football Focus, and while you can certainly quibble with their methodology, that’s an alarming number.
They certainly weren’t all — and maybe not any — due to a lack of comfort or confidence in playing right tackle.
The only player that had more sacks assigned to him last year by PFF? Steelers left tackle Dan Moore Jr.
Moore was the reason that Jones was playing on the right and is also an illustrative example of how the position move can’t be the be-all, end-all for Jones.
Moore was a fourth-round pick by the Steelers in 2021, and the plan was for him to be a developmental player and a swing tackle. As a backup, he’d have plenty of time to adjust to playing some right tackle in addition to the left tackle he’d played at Texas A&M.
But when Zach Banner couldn’t recover from his knee injury and Moore had to be inserted into the starting lineup immediately — in what was Ben Roethlisberger’s final season with the team. They didn’t have the luxury of giving him time to adjust to a new spot. So they rolled with Moore at left tackle.
The results were uninspiring, so uninspiring that the Steelers used consecutive first-round picks on tackles to be assured of being able to replace Moore before he hit free agency this offseason.
Moore wasn’t given time to learn a new position in 2021 because the Steelers were still in win-now mode with Big Ben. By the end of his time in Pittsburgh, there was no point. He was on his way out the door.
Moore could have — and probably should have — learned right tackle. He might still be in Pittsburgh if he had. Because despite his familiarity and comfort level with the position stemming from his college days, Moore is not good enough at left tackle to play there in the NFL.
Left tackle is a much more demanding position than right tackle. Protecting the quarterback’s blind side is a big deal, because if the left tackle loses his rep, the quarterback can’t see it happening. Fast losses by left tackles get quarterbacks hurt. Even slow losses by left tackles can easily cause turnovers. Because of that, most top edge rushers line up opposite left tackles, so it has the added difficulty of being the hardest job within the offensive scheme and also facing the toughest opponents. A team’s left tackle needs to be the most dependable blocker on the offensive line, and is usually where the team’s best pass blocker plays.
Through his first two seasons, no one would accuse Jones of being that. And if he wants to continue to be the team’s left tackle, he’s going to have to get there.
The reason Jones was a good bet for the Steelers at the No. 14 overall pick is that he’s a freak athlete for the tackle position — and he came into OTAs slimmed down even further this year.
He moves his feet extremely well, and the footwork would be the biggest area to trip up a player struggling with the transition from left tackle to right tackle or vice versa.
Instead, Jones’ issues have come from inconsistent hand placement, a lack of effectiveness and power in his punch, and an overall lack of focus that has shown up in a number of ways, from not having the play or snap count correct to eight called penalties last year.
Some of that might be solved by a move back to a more comfortable position, but not most of it, especially when you consider that, above the high school level, Jones has now taken more reps at right tackle (1,806 with the Steelers) than left tackle (1,358 with Georgia).
Jones was a good bet because of his athleticism. He also was a player that was going to need development.
The Steelers have a ton riding on that development. Their trenches-first rebuild will look a lot less successful if the first step, and arguably the biggest step with a trade up for a left tackle, doesn’t pan out.
Despite the above statistics, Jones remains a player with a good bit of promise. That bet could very well pay off. If it does, it won’t just be because he’s playing left tackle again.