Broderick Jones is a mess. Most of the blame lies with the Steelers.
The Steelers traded up to take Jones with the 14th pick of last year’s NFL Draft. He was supposed to be their franchise left tackle.
Jones started 11 games as a rookie, all at right tackle. That imbued Jones with versatility that has since turned into a curse, making him the swing tackle in his second season.
Dan Moore Jr., meanwhile, can only play left tackle. He can’t be the swing tackle.
That means Moore starts at left tackle for a fourth straight season. Rookie Troy Fautanu leapfrogged Jones to start at right tackle.
Jones played just part of one series (11 plays) in Sunday’s 13-6 win at Denver. It was at right tackle. It was an unmitigated disaster.
Jones committed three penalties, including a holding call that negated a 51-yard pass from Justin Fields to George Pickens. (Jones’ hold also enabled that throw. Don’t mentally credit those yards to Fields or Pickens.)
Jones got benched. What now?
It’s too early to proclaim Jones a bust. He’s also playing though an elbow injury that sees him wearing a clunky brace on his right arm.
Jones started only 19 games at Georgia. He figured to be a bit of a project. At 6-foot-5, 311 pounds, Jones certainly looks the part.
But this is going horribly wrong.
The Steelers have erred in one of two ways.
They either picked the wrong guy or aren’t putting Jones in a position to succeed.
Moore is a fourth-round pick. A player of limited pedigree. He’s in his fourth season as a starter.
The Steelers love Moore’s work ethic, overrating him as a result. Moore is subpar by most metrics. But how much do you trust the “experts” imposing those metrics?
The big question: Is Moore good enough to block Jones from playing?
If Moore is, then why draft Jones? Once you drafted Jones, why draft Fautanu? Why not sign Moore to an extension if he’s performed that well? (Moore’s contract expires after this season.)
Why not draft a wide receiver, a position where the Steelers sorely lack? You don’t need three starting tackles. The Steelers don’t have a legit No. 2 wideout.
The Steelers should have put Jones at left tackle the minute they got him. That was where Jones was drafted to play. The Steelers instead indulged an allegiance to Moore.
Oh, wait … rookies have to earn it, right? Seven years without a playoff win later, the Steelers are still exercising the same tired cliches. (Although Moore started as a rookie.)
If Jones isn’t good enough, then the Steelers erred in drafting him.
If Moore is better than Jones, then sign Moore beyond this season. If the Steelers overpay, they can blame themselves. They’ve assigned inflated value to a mediocre left tackle by starting him for four years, including two seasons playing him ahead of the player they drafted to replace him. Except Jones didn’t replace Moore.
If all this sounds convoluted and confusing, it’s because it is.
The Steelers are teaching Jones to be a backup. The swing tackle. (You don’t draft somebody 14th overall to be the swing tackle.)
Jones should be getting steady reps at one spot. Instead, he doesn’t know what position he plays.
Jones’ confidence seems broken. He looks confused.
It’s reminiscent of what the Penguins did with Aleksey Morozov.
Morozov, a winger, was the Penguins’ first-round pick in 1995. He was a big offensive talent in Russia, an up-and-coming star.
But the Penguins put Morozov in their bottom six. Third and fourth line. He never got a legit run in the top six.
After a while, Morozov played like a bottom-six winger: Chip the puck out, chip the puck in. His creativity was killed by his role. The Penguins drafted one player, then developed the opposite sort of player.
Morozov returned to Russia after seven blah seasons with the Penguins. He led the Russian league in goals once, was league MVP once, playoff MVP twice and was annually among the loop’s top scorers. Russia isn’t the NHL. But it’s not chopped liver, either.
Morozov excelled in Russia because he was allowed to. In Pittsburgh, not so much. He never got opportunity that matched his skill set.
Perhaps the same thing is happening to Jones.
Or maybe Jones just stinks.