Broderick Jones was one of the big stories of the day for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Week 2 game against the Denver Broncos.
Leading up to the game, it became apparent that Troy Fautanu would be getting the starting nod, and then reports surfaced that indicated there would be a rotation at right tackle between Fautanu and Jones.
Jones entered the game on the third offensive series and hamstrung an otherwise solid drive with three penalties over the span of six plays. He was pulled from the game and did not return on offense as part of the rotation.
But it was after the game that he made headlines for some of the comments he made to reporters.
“If not starting, I really don’t feel like I should be playing,” Jones said via KDKA’s Extra Point after the game. “It’s really not a big factor for me.”
Without context, that doesn’t sound great from Jones. There were already narratives swirling from the local media that suggested Jones looked disinterested at times throughout the preseason. Pat McAfee Show’s Mark Kaboly even claimed he heard Jones was disinterested in the week leading up to the Broncos game after learning he wouldn’t be the starter.
Jones also said after the game in a separate clip posted by The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo that “defenders flop, refs throw flags.”
Mike Tomlin was asked about these postgame comments on Tuesday.
“I didn’t hear that. I don’t know under what circumstances he said that” Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference in a video posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page. “Oftentimes, guys are just trying to answer questions appropriately and move on with their day. So I don’t put a whole lot of stake in some of those emotional things that are said by guys after games in an effort to be professional and answer questions of media types like you.”
It is easy to look at these situations from the outside, especially after poor performances on the field, and solidify narratives about players. Sometimes, they are deserved, but a lot of the time, they are not.
Jones has every right to feel a little disappointment. If you look at the rest of his postgame comments, he was critical of himself and said a lot of the right things in terms of having a next-play mentality.
Tomlin called Jones a rising young leader of the offensive line group after the 2023 season. He showed some of that throughout training camp, working with guys like Darnell Washington after practice and teaching them things in pass protection.
There will always be a lot of media chatter and noise about a player after a poor performance, especially after they were benched as a former first-round draft pick. But it is important to keep context. As Tomlin said, players say emotional things after games. It is an emotional sport. The fact that Tomlin hadn’t even heard Jones’ comments shows how little this trumped-up media narrative means.
Tomlin said he is going to give Jones opportunities to overcome his Week 2 struggles. His response to the adversity could help shape him into a better player or dig him further into a hole. He is still just a 23-year-old former first-round pick who has less than a full season of starts under his belt. There’s still plenty of time for him to turn things around and put all of this behind him.
