Broderick Jones cleared to play

This could be huge! Let's hope he can finally get things going.

 

Old news

https://thesteelersfans.com/forums/...p-thread-2026-the-new-era-begins.36819/page-3

 

I'd test him at RG during camp. Worst case he completely stinks and never plays a snap there during the preseason and he's just the swing T this season. I see zero harm in experimenting with seeing his positional flexibility especially considering he likely won't be here in 2027.

 

Switching him back and forth from the left to right and back again is what's messed up his development in the first place, and now you want him tried out on the inside......
For God's sake can we please throw out the Mike Tomlin position flexibility handbook once and for all

 

It was never discussed here......like ever!!!

 

I'm not saying you're wrong. But this staff is doing the same thing with Fautanu. If Jones is one of your 5 best lineman entering the season, where do you play him if Troy is the LT?

 

Glad that he's able to practice (but I think still not fully cleared).

Will be interesting to see if he can win the RT job.

Worst case is that he's a decent swing tackle option.

You can never have enough NFL-capable OL.

Two things I wonder: (1) can he try to play at RG if he doesn't win the RT spot and (2) I wonder what his trade value would be.

I wouldn't trade him just to trade him. But I don't think he has a future on this team at OT after we just spend another first at OT. So if someone wanted to overpay us, I'd probably flip him. For example, I'd take a 2nd round pick next year over one year of Jones (probably less than one year). The plan has to be to try to get Max as the other starting OT by the end of the season IMO. A 2nd would probably help if we wanted to move up for a QB.

 

If he would have been better than Dan Moore, we wouldn't have moved him around at all.

He would have likely ended up a swing tackle if Troy didn't get hurt in his rookie year.

 

Jones was a Swing-and-a-miss Tackle.

 

For hope to materialize, clarity needs to be made. I want Broderick to succeed. Just not sure if he can... in Pittsburgh anyway.

 

He's fully cleared and ready to go.

 

Glad he is ready and raring to go! Really awesome news.

 

Actually, they're correcting the last staffs mistakes by putting him and McCormick back at their natural positions

 

Not true at all... Tomlin was fiercely loyal to his established starters..... that was one of his major downfalls.... if it weren't for things like this, then Kevin Dotson would still be here

 

I’m thinking more along the lines that Dotson was a mediocre pass blocker and the Rams ridiculously over paid him

JMO

 

Nice. Better than what I thought.

I knew he avoided the PUP, but thought he was still just doing more individual stuff (like in the mini camp stuff).

 

Dotson had flashes of brilliance for us.

And A LOT of presnap penalties.

I think he was kind of "scared straight" after being traded away by the team that drafted him.

He was seemed to be the victim of being of (i) not being great when on the other side of the OL (I think that's part of the penalties) and (ii) his more natural position being occupied by a recent big name UFA acquisition.

 

Actually, his flashes of brilliance became much more consistent when the rams put him back at his natural position on the right side, which basically makes my entire point

 

The rams place him back on the right side, where he belonged all along, and he's now a pro bowler

 

He’s still a mediocre pass blocker

 

I tried to tell people this

 

Let me let a few of You in on something.
1. If you play on a team with the other OL man being really good, you will look better. If You play on a OL with a bunch of new guys, and they are not really good yet, you will not look as good.
2. Its a hell of a difference blocking for Matthew Stafford then Pickett, Trubisky, Old Ben, and a bunch of bad Qbs.

 

Different blocking scheme used by the Rams

 

Not sure if you saw the "(ii)" part in the post you quoted here.

We drafted Dotson in 2020. DeCastro was our starting RG that year. Dotson was not starting over DeCastro.
In 2021, we specifically signed Turner to play RG. And Dotson and LeGlue split starts at LG.
Then in 2022, we specifically signed Daniels to play RG. So Dotson wasn't going to start there that year either.

We weren't going to move a perennial probowler (DeCastro) or UFA additions who were specifically signed to play that position (Turner and especially Daniels who was a high value contract) to the other side of the OL in favor of the young guy who wasn't a clear NFL starter across his first 2 years in the league. That's just how the NFL works.

In hind sight, we can probably say that it might have been better not to sign Turner at RG and play Dotson there staring in 2021. But my guess is that there was pretty close to 0 people making that argument in real time after Dotson's rookie campaign in 2020 where he was a spot starter.

The mental mistakes made Dotson a liability despite the fact that he also had very good plays on tape. But you want your OL to be consistent. Having a 1st and 15 or losing a big gain because the OL gets downfield too early kills drives. And when you're on a team that isn't good at offense to begin with, killing drives is bad.

In 2022, Dotson had 11 penalties in 9 games. 7 of these 11 penalties were "brain fart" penalties. 4x false starts. 3x ineligible man downfield.

For comparison's sake, Mason McCormick played G for us last year. He had 2 penalties in 17 starts. This was McCormick's 2nd year in the league. Dotson was in his 3rd year in the league in 2022.


I also think part of his "development" here was getting "scared straight" after the team that drafted him gave up on him. IIRC, there were reports that he was less than fully committed when he was here. And that was part of the reason for the "brain farts" he'd have that led to presnap penalties. It's impossible to prove, but I think getting traded really "turned the light on" for him re: effort. That he wasn't all that far from being drummed out of the league if he didn't get his act together. To his credit, he did.

 

Don't get me started on our coaches during that time