Pittsburgh Steelers right tackle Broderick Jones has had enough. He let all of his critics know that on X (formerly Twitter) on September 29.
Following the team’s 27-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4, Jones clapped back at multiple fans on X who criticized his play.
It was the first time Jones had tweeted since January 15.
“Lol bro do you even know football?” Jones wrote in his first tweeted on September 29.
Jones made similar responses to eight other fans.
“lol you don’t know [expletive] about football I’m convinced,” Jones wrote to another fan.
Jones made his third start of the season at right tackle versus the Colts. The Steelers offensive line had a rough day, allowing 4 sacks and posting just 4.1 yards per carry.
Indianapolis allowed 4.4 yards per rush and had 8 sacks in the first three games of the season combined.
Steelers’ Broderick Jones Claps Back on Twitter
Jones experienced a pretty strong rookie season, especially considering he switched to right tackle halfway through the 2023 campaign. But he struggled in Week 2 of the preseason, and since then, he’s becoming a lightning rod for social media users.
It’s not clear exactly what caused Jones to respond to fans after the Week 4 loss. None of the social media users directly tagged Jones with their tweets to get his direct attention.
But the Steelers right tackle still found the criticism and wrote back.
Jones hasn’t exactly played at a Pro Bowl level to begin this season. But some of the criticism he received on social media on September 29 seemed unjust or inaccurate.
Other criticism was downright mean.
Jones’ play, though, has left a lot to be desired. Before Week 4, 59 offensive tackles had played at least 50% of his team’s offensive snaps. The Pro Football Focus player grades had Jones ranked last in that group.
Steelers Dealing With More Offensive Line Injuries
Even though Jones hasn’t fared well in the PFF player grades, his play seemed serviceable during Week 1. But the Steelers had Jones play on a rotational basis in Week 2, where he didn’t perform well at all.
On the only drive he played during the game, Jones committed three penalties.
Jones officially lost the right tackle job to rookie Troy Fautanu after that series. But Fautanu didn’t make another start before suffering a regular season-ending injury on September 20.
Jones has started the last two games since then. Right tackle isn’t the only spot along the offensive line where the Steelers have a backup.
The team finished Week 4 with four offensive linemen on the field who didn’t begin the preseason as his position’s projected starter.
Left guard Isaac Seumalo hasn’t played at all this season, and right guard James Daniels exited on September 29 with an ankle injury.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Chris Adamski reported after the game that Daniels was wearing a walking boot and on crutches.
At center, rookie Zach Frazier has played pretty well. But he became the team’s starter after veteran interior lineman Nate Herbig suffered a season-ending injury during the preseason.
Frazier and Justin Fields have struggled with the center-quarterback exchange early this season. A botched snap during the 2-minute drill essentially ended any comeback hope for the Steelers versus the Colts in Week 4.
Seumalo could return in Week 5. But Frazier and Jones are going to be starters for the foreseeable future while the Steelers may need a backup to start at right guard too on October 6.
Jones and the rest of the line will have to improve for the Steelers offense to get any better.
