The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed offensive lineman Steven Jones to a future contract for the 2025 season, the team announced on Tuesday.
Jones, a 2024 undrafted rookie out of Oregon, spent his entire rookie season on the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad, but elected to sign with the Steelers for 2025 instead of returning to Jacksonville. Jones was not elevated from the Jaguars practice squad and did not play in any games this regular season.
Jones did play in two preseason games for the Jaguars last summer, recording 18 total snaps over two weeks, playing exclusively at right guard.
In pre-draft testing, Jones measured an impressive 6-foot-5 and 342 pounds, but tested extremely poorly. His 21-inch vertical and 5.15-second shuttle run were among the worst recorded scores in the class. He had an overall 2.95 Relative Athletic Score out of 10.
A Temecula, California native, Jones was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school, but did not become a regular until his third season with the Ducks in 2020, when he split time between left tackle, right tackle and right guard. In 2021, he was a full-time starter, again moving between right tackle and guard. The following year, he was back at guard, but played in only five games due to injury.
As a redshirt senior in 2023, Jones started all 14 games at right guard as Oregon made it all the way to the Big 12 Championship Game and won the Fiesta Bowl. He was an All-Pac 12 first team selection for the first time in his career.
Jones was one of a number of signings for the Steelers on Tuesday. They also retained outside linebackers Julius Welschof and Eku Leota, inside linebacker Devin Harper, defensive tackle Jacob Slade, wide receiver Brandon Johnson, defensive back D’Shawn Jamison, running back Aaron Shampklin, tackle Dylan Cook and guard Doug Nester, brought back defesnive tackle Domenique Davis, cornerback Kyler McMichael and wide receiver Lance McCutcheon, and brought in on new contracts quarterback Skylar Thompson, defensive back Joshuah Bledsoe, running back Evan Hull and outside linebacker Thomas Rush.