Broderick Jones gets brutally honest about his performance vs. Broncos
Credit Jones for his self-awareness; He’s on thin ice with Mike Tomlin after Week 2.
Broderick Jones had a bad game against the Denver Broncos in Week 2… and he knows it. After Week 1, Jones was benched and replaced by rookie offensive tackle Troy Fautanu. In an effort to get Jones back on the field, Mike Tomlin rotated Jones into the game early.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to pull the plug on this experiment.
After 11 disastrous snaps and three penalties on one drive, Jones was pulled from the contest — forced to watch the rest of the game on the sidelines. This was not the start of his second NFL season the team envisioned.
The Steelers’ media caught up with Broderick after practice on September 19 ahead of Pittsburgh’s Week 3 game against the LA Chargers. Jones took one hundred percent of the blame for his performance and noted how poorly he played against the Broncos in Week 2.
“[Expletive], I played bad,” Jones explained to Chris Adamski of TribLIVE. “That’s all it is at the end of the day. You f*** up, you get pulled… That’s all it is. I’ve just got to be better. Continue to grow as a player and as a man, and take the good with the bad.”
Credit Broderick with excellent self awareness here. Step two is fixing these issues with the next opportunity he gets.
Broderick Jones already on thin ice with the Steelers
We know Mike Tomlin wants players in the game he can trust. The Steelers head coach values veteran leadership and preferences players who are willing to go the extra mile to put in the work. It’s for this very reason that Dan Moore Jr. is still in the good graces of the coaching staff after three underwhelming seasons as a starter.
When Broderick is given another opportunity, he cannot squander it. Jones is already on thin ice with the Steelers after a dismal summer and getting benched early in the regular season. The next opportunity he gets needs to be the performance of a lifetime.
This starts with Jones having full confidence as a right or left tackle and knowing exactly how to execute each play that is called. If you watch the All-22 tape from his game against the Broncos, Jones looked lost at times — even anticipating the wrong cadence on his false start.
He also needs to trust his natural strength and athletic ability to get the job done. Jones was tagged with two holding calls on one series against the Broncos. Though you could call holding on just about every play in the NFL, he needs to know when to let go and live to fight another down.
All hope isn’t lost with Broderick Jones and his future with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it’s fading fast. The 2023 first-round pick needs to work his butt off to get back into the good graces of Mike Tomlin and the coaching staff.
