Dan Moore gets Broderick Jones, having mentored the kid from the moment he arrived in the Steelers' fold. He gets Jones on and off the field. He gets being a starting offensive tackle in the NFL. He gets the system, the scheme, everything in between.
And thus, I'm betting he'd get, better than anyone, whatever went wrong for Jones in being bullied by the Bills' Greg Rousseau, snap after snap after snap, sack after sack after sack, over the weekend at Acrisure Stadium.
You know, like this:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) August 18, 2024
"Eh," Moore would tell me after practice Tuesday afternoon at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, "he'll be all right."
That's it?
"That's it."
Oh, if only. Pull up a figurative South Side parking chair, my friends, to see how this story, one that just might make a defining dent into the 2024 season before the first football flies off the first tee, further unfolded on this day.
These were the two opening questions I had for Jones, facing reporters for the first time since declining interviews after that Buffalo game:
I asked, first, how he'd reacted upon reviewing the film.
"I just gotta be better," came the reply, chin up, cringe-free. "For me ... for us as an offense, I feel like we're always trying to have that extra emphasis on starting fast, on being physical. And for me, I just feel like I didn't set the tone from the beginning of the game. I've just gotta continue to get better each and every day, and keep going from there."
I followed up: Is he healthy?
"I'm as healthy as I'm gonna get. But everybody's always playing with something, week in and week out, some kinda minor injury they've gotta push through."
Simple enough. Aced 'em both, I'd say. He could've put up some tough front or even engaged in outright denial, and he sure wouldn't have been the first. He instead raised, on his own, quite possibly the most uncomfortable dual explanation of all:
1. He wasn't ready.
2. He wasn't physical enough.
Accountability's always an inspired start. Can't "be better" without accepting that there's room to be better.
But let's also be real: Jones is hurt, to at least some extent, whether or not he chooses to use it as an excuse.
He's worn a brace on his right elbow since the Steelers' opening week in Latrobe, beginning the day after that elbow received on-field treatment from athletic trainers following a Najee Harris touchdown in a seven-shots drill. Jones was right back in the drill two snaps later, he's yet to miss a practice or game, and he's yet to complain, although he's conceded on occasion that the brace has forced him to adjust his blocking.
Asked about the elbow on this day, he'd reply, "It’s not the brace. The guys may think it is, but there’s nothing wrong with the brace. It’s me being able to lock in with football and just continue to grow as a player and trust in my game. We say, ‘Control what we can control.’ That’s out of my control. That’s just something I have to play through. Hopefully, one day, I can take it off and don’t have to wear it, but you never know.”
OK. Still, it's not nothing.
Jones later referenced working through "multiple" physical issues, though he didn't detail those and, in fact, he downplayed those, as well.
Also not nothing.
And when Jones was asked if it's affected him to switch sides from his natural position at left tackle to the right side, including alternating in some practices, he dismissed that with a single syllable: "No."
Definitely not nothing. He and I've discussed this enough times that I'm sure it's not nothing.
So, what's going on here?
Well, if forced to put forth an educated guess based on having covered a certain headstrong head coach for a couple decades ...
“We’re not looking for excuses," Mike Tomlin flatly replied a few minutes earlier out by the field when asked if the elbow was hindering Jones.
“I think the next performance is an indication of that,” Tomlin would reply when next asked what he'd like to see from Jones. “There's a process in terms of getting better: You analyze, you acknowledge, you make another plan to get ready for the next opportunity. But ultimately, responses are gauged by the next performance.”
"Absolutely," Tomlin would finally reply when I asked if he values such scenarios.
And he really does. Often orchestrates them, for crying out loud.
I don't know if that's happening in this one, but I do know this: If Jones were either hurt or were to perform below his steady, sometimes superb rookie level, this offense will be DOA before anyone can say Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. As was witnessed against the Bills, nothing gets off the ground with the line languishing as it did.
And no, it wasn't just Jones. As James Daniels would say on this day, "We've all got to keep the quarterback cleaner. The quarterbacks got hit too much over the past two games. And it's just technique issues. Just bad technique. So we'll fix that. It's the preseason. We have to keep working, keep practicing."
I know this, too: Those of us who'd been pleading with the Steelers for half a decade to finally replace the Maurkice Pouncey group with bona fide pedigree, we can't have it both ways. We can't want that to happen, then applaud when first-rounders are invested in Jones and Troy Fautanu plus a second-rounder in Zach Frazier, then plead for all of these youngsters to play ... then freak out every time anything goes astray.
They're here now, there's a moderate-to-decent chance all three will start in Atlanta, and it won't all go smoothly. Not for the individuals, not for the collective. Ramon Foster, part of that Pouncey group, told me earlier this month that, if the Steelers start all three youngsters, he envisions all of this taking six weeks to fully assemble. And that, he added, was optimal.
Maybe Tomlin's got cause to believe Jones' elbow isn't a big deal. And maybe, in turn, he'd like to push an integral piece of the franchise's future through some growing pains. And maybe, from there, he's poking and prodding in the preseason rather than when the games count.
But also ... and wow, think about this: Maybe Tomlin and Jones were both telling the truth here, and he just needs to do some damage in Detroit.
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