Broderick Jones was drafted to start at left tackle. He's cool with the Steelers making him earn it

LATROBE, Pa. — Broderick Jones understands the expectations that come with being taken in the first round of the NFL draft. The Pittsburgh Steelers rookie offensive tackle embraced them from the moment he heard his name called with the 14th pick in April.

He knows at some point, he's going to be expected to start. And start for a good long while.

Yet the future isn't here. Not yet. Three weeks into his first NFL training camp, Jones remains the understudy at left tackle behind Dan Moore Jr., who has welcomed Jones while simultaneously doing everything he can to make sure Jones has to wait his turn.

Watch the two of them on the practice field together and it's hard to tell that Jones is all but assured of one day taking Moore's job.

If they weren't talking animatedly comparing notes during a one-on-one drill against defensive linemen, they were sharing a laugh with general manager Omar Khan. If they weren't picking a fight (playfully) with defensive backs, they were spending 10 minutes after practice ended taking turns helping each other with their “get off,” one of them acting as a defensive end so the other could tweak his footwork at the snap.

Moore, who believes the offensive line as a whole is “really close,” is making a concerted effort to bring Jones up to speed, though it may not take long for Jones to get there.

The 22-year-old played a team-high 49 snaps in Pittsburgh's preseason win over Tampa Bay last Friday. Not that Jones is keeping track. He knows he's not atop the depth chart. Turns out coach Mike Tomlin wasn't kidding when he told Jones he was going to have to earn it.

That's fine by Jones.

“I’m really not that big on just coming in and, you know, just jumping in with the ones right away," Jones said. “You know, I like to feel things out.”

Jones and Moore have said and done all the right things since Jones arrived in May, careful to stress they are not pitting themselves against each other.

Maybe it's because Moore found himself in a somewhat similar position two years ago, albeit with less fanfare. The Steelers selected him in the fourth round in 2021, looking for depth. Then he impressed the coaching staff with his physicality, and when right tackle Zach Banner never fully recovered from a torn ACL in his left knee sustained in the 2020 opener, Moore found himself starting as a rookie.

He's made 33 consecutive starts since, though that didn't stop Pittsburgh from moving up three spots to take the 6-foot-5, 310-pound Jones, won over by his mix of size and athleticism.

Jones allowed just two sacks during his career at Georgia, none of them last year while he helped the Bulldogs to a second straight national championship. He did enough while competing in practice against a defensive line that's now largely scattered throughout the NFL to make him believe he could thrive at the next level.

The next level arrived at Tampa Bay, where Jones showed — at least for a preseason game — he's not going to be intimidated. The heavy workload, or “exposure” as Tomlin put it, was by design. The Steelers wanted to get an extended look at the player who will likely be in charge of protecting quarterback Kenny Pickett's blind side sooner or later.

“I like his demeanor, I like how he finished,” Tomlin said.

Saturday night's visit by Buffalo could provide a closer look at how far Jones has come in the last three-plus months, and how much farther he still has to go. The starters figure to get their most extended playing time of the preseason. Maybe there will be a chance for Jones to get on the field with the starters for a series or two. Maybe not. If he stands on the sidelines and watches Moore work, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

“So I feel like it’s an asset for me just to sit back and watch somebody, you know, who’s older, who’s done it for years,” Jones said. “So just being able to sit back, watch what works for him, what doesn’t, you know, try to implement those small things into my game, you know, I feel like that’s a plus.”

Those pluses were evident on Tuesday. Jones easily shut out Nick Herbig, an early camp standout at outside linebacker, during a pass-rush drill in which they were singled up against each other. Jones either deftly maneuvered Herbig out of the way or in one case, basically swallowed him whole.

Seconds later, Jones pulled Moore aside while they did a quick review of all three snaps. Someone will run out on the field with the starters when Pittsburgh opens the season against San Francisco on Sept. 10. Moore appears to have the lead at the moment. That could and likely will change at some point this season.

“Me and Dan don’t even look at it as a battle,” Jones said. “We just look at it as trying to get better each and every day between me and him.”