Aaron Rodgers thought he’d just won the night against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7, when he hit tight end Pat Freiermuth for a 68-yard touchdown and started celebrating. Then Broderick Jones blasted him from behind in the end zone, prompting Rodgers to later text his left tackle: “I’m 41, OK? You can’t be out there tackling me like that” and telling him to “watch his back,” promising revenge. But now, the biggest worry is whether Jones’ neck will let him protect the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers ever again.

This week, Jones talked publicly about that neck injury, but didn’t give head coach Mike McCarthy or the front office anything close to a return date.

“Recovery is good. I feel fine, just getting back to it,” Jones said, per Steelers reporter Brendan Howe. “I really don’t have a timeline. They never gave me a timeline. They’re just monitoring it day by day. We’ll go from there.”

The Steelers shut Jones down last November after he injured his neck against the Chicago Bears in Week 12. He underwent surgery to repair the damage in January and has been on the mend since. But general manager Omar Khan had already admitted there is “a little concern,” especially with no specific timeline from team doctors.

When Broderick Jones is healthy, the upside is why the Steelers traded up to draft him 14th overall in 2023. He played right tackle early in his career before moving back to his natural left side in 2025. It was a switch that was supposed to lock the position in for years before his neck flared up. Last season, he started all 11 games he played, and logged 97% of the team’s offensive snaps, along with 4% with special teams. That’s the playmaker Steel City may miss in 2026.

But there’s a catch. He is still showing up, despite having no clear return date.

At the first open OTA, Jones participated briefly in a stretching exercise with teammates, and then drifted to the side while the offense ran through drills. He looked like a player in limbo: present enough to remind you what he was supposed to be, limited enough that McCarthy and Khan have to build as if they might not get that version back anytime soon. That’s why the business side of things has already moved.

The Steelers declined Jones’ fifth-year option, making him the fifth consecutive player to experience that in Pittsburgh. They addressed it by spending a first-round pick on Arizona State OT Max Iheanachor to go with free-agent and depth pieces up front. Everything about those decisions says they now view Jones as a wild card, not a cornerstone. And they may have already found their next Jones.

The Broderick Jones 2.0 blueprint for Pittsburgh

The new plan without Jones was clear on the very first day of the OTAs. Troy Fautanu lined up at left tackle, Dylan Cook took the first-team right tackle snaps, and Iheanachor opened with the third group while Jones stayed in warmups.

For a player drafted to the long-term blindside answer, watching the very man he’d once replaced now taking his reps was as telling as any medical update. But Fautanu made it clear that this wasn’t a permanent fix for the O-line.

“I’ve had a lot of talks with the coaches,” Fautanu said. “Right now, it’s still kinda up in the air. First day of OTAs, just trying to get out there. Obviously, the last few weeks, I’ve been flipping back and forth, just trying to get comfortable. … Being ready for whatever happens. Obviously, with Brod, and that whole situation, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But like I said, if they ask me to play left, I’m gonna do it.”

Fautanu has done this before. He played left tackle at Washington. After being drafted 20th overall in 2024, he started his entire rookie year at right tackle for Pittsburgh before this offseason’s flip back to the left side. That versatility is exactly why the staff feels comfortable reshaping the depth chart while Jones’ status hangs over the group.

Some will say this is the same mistake all over again – another first-round tackle moved around and thrown into a new role. But the difference now is the Steelers are doing it in May with a healthy Fautanu, a new head coach, and another first-round tackle in the room instead of waiting until midseason and hoping Jones figures it out on the fly.

For now, Broderick Jones is a former top-15 pick with a ‘Questionable’ injury tag, saying he feels fine while everyone around him plans for contingencies. Until that “recovery is good” statement comes with full participation and real contact, McCarthy’s tackle blueprint will look a lot more like Fautanu and Iheanachor than the man who tackled Aaron Rodgers in a moment that feels farther away every week.