Pittsburgh’s offensive line has slipped three places in PFF’s latest rankings after its Week 1 performance. After all, it allowed four sacks and averaged 2.7 yards per carry against the New York Jets. And at the center of all the criticism is Broderick Jones, the left tackle offensive lineman who failed to protect Aaron Rodgers on the first snap itself.

The 2023 first-round pick allowed three sacks in the Week 1 34-32 win—a nightmare debut that raised doubts about whether he can be trusted in the role the team cleared for him after letting Dan Moore walk in free agency. The gamble was always risky. At 41, Aaron Rodgers can’t afford repeated hits, yet Jones struggled from start to finish on Sunday.

And now Jones has finally opened up on his performance against the Jets. “Just got to continue to focus in, you know, I can’t put that on tape,” Jones admitted. “I know that everybody knows that. So, you know, you just can’t have that performance again.” He’s not wrong. Pro Football Focus gave him a 54.5 overall grade, dragged down by a 46.8 in pass protection.

Sam Monson of The 33rd Team said, “Broderick Jones at left tackle just got his a** handed to him by Will McDonald.” The offensive line struggled blocking Jets defensive linemen Will McDonald and Quinnen Williams in the season opener. McDonald’s first sack? Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers on third down. Successfully dominating the stolen Jets’ draft target, Broderick Jones. Even former Steelers tackle Trai Essex pointed fingers at Jones, calling the showing “troubling” and adding, “What makes it the most troubling is the fact that I don’t know how it gets better.” Entering his third season, the expectation was that he would finally settle in on the left side, but instead, Week 1 showed just how fragile that plan still is.

And when pressed on why it went so poorly, Jones didn’t have a clear answer. “I really don’t know. Honestly, I felt like I prepared the right way. My mind was in it the whole time. Just a bad game, honestly. So, you know, I just got to continue to grow from that.”

Growth is exactly what the Steelers are banking on, even after a rough 2024 season where Jones ranked 97th out of 140 qualified tackles by PFF and tied for the second-most sacks allowed with 10. The hope was that a full offseason at left tackle would steady him, but the recent performance suggested otherwise.

As for how he plans to fix it, Jones was candid: “Everything. Everything, you know, it’s always a game of inches. So, you know, all the small details and all the little things you can do, you know, just help yourself out in the long run.”

That attention to detail might be the only way forward, because Pittsburgh’s backup plan isn’t promising. Troy Fautanu, who played left tackle in college, will remain on the right side after missing nearly all of his rookie year. Calvin Anderson, who was the swing tackle against New York, hasn’t started since 2023. The reality is the Steelers can’t give up on a former first-round pick after one rough outing.

Aaron Rodgers can’t afford another weak link

Mike Tomlin didn’t sugarcoat it. “Certainly, he can be better,” the Steelers coach said when asked about Broderick Jones. Better? That’s the understatement of the week. “All of our performances could be better. Our quarterback got hit too much, and he was a component of that.” That’s the heart of it—Rodgers may have looked vintage in Week 1, completing 73.3% of 30 pass attempts for 244 yards and four touchdowns, but how long can that magic last if his protection keeps leaking? The man was sacked 40 times last year in New York—that was the root of their collapse. Can the Steelers really afford to let the same cracks form in front of their 41-year-old lifeline?

And yet, Tomlin isn’t worried about Jones’ confidence. “You don’t get to the National Football League by being fragile emotionally,” he said. That’s classic Tomlin—no panic, just a call to fight back. “There are a lot of confident guys that I’ve worked with. You win some battles, you lose some battles. You come back fighting. That’s just the nature of the men that play this game at this level.” Confidence doesn’t stop edge rushers; technique and consistency do. Jones has to find those fast, or Pittsburgh will be left patching holes on the fly.

What makes this sting even more is the journey. The Steelers traded up to draft Jones in 2023, only to stash him at right tackle while Dan Moore held down the left. Two years of miscasting, followed by a bumpy camp, and now he’s finally where he belongs. How long can optimism last when the film screams otherwise? The pressure is coming from an entire city that knows its championship hopes live or die with Rodgers staying upright.