Ben Roethlisberger goes to bat for quarterback Aaron Rodgers after blasting Steelers left tackle Broderick Jones
Big Ben didn’t hold back.
Coming into 2025, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense was going to go as far as their offensive line would take it. The team sits at 2-1, but the unit up front has been shaky at best. Honestly, the interior of the line and its struggles have been more surprising than the tackles.
That’s because we knew Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu would be a work in progress. Fautanu has settled in nicely, and to be fair, they let up zero sacks against the New England Patriots, but Aaron Rodgers has been on his backside way too much.
That has Big Ben calling out Broderick Jones:
Big Ben rips Broderick Jones’ level of play
“I don’t know how much [longer] you need to see your quarterback, who [is] not a spring chicken, who doesn’t want to get hit, get hit, until you start saying, ‘hey, listen, we got to do something about this,’” said Big Ben on the most recent episode of his podcast. “Listen, I’m not bashing Broderick Jones; it’s evidence. And that’s only two plays that I saw that it’s like, ‘oh my goodness.’
“I got word from someone outside the organization, not inside the organization, but someone that watches the all 22 that was like, ‘hey, it’s not just these ones. There’s a majority of the plays where it’s just, it’s not good, it’s not good enough.’ I assume that Tomlin is addressing it, and I assume maybe the o-line coach. I don’t know him. I don’t know what he’s doing, but at some point, there needs to be some accountability from that left tackle.”
To me, it’s obvious that Jones is learning on the fly. The Steelers thwarted or stunted his growth by placing him at right tackle his first two years despite being drafted to play left tackle. Now, he’s essentially a rookie out there, but the Steelers timeline, whether it be with Aaron Rodgers or the defense, doesn’t have time for a rookie left tackle.
Does Jones need to be better? Undoubtedly. But this issue largely falls on the Steelers, and it has ever since he was drafted. It’s not as if Jones was drafted with the understanding that he would be a plug-and-play left tackle.
It was a consensus belief that he needed work and time to develop and grow into the left tackle position with better footwork, hand placement, and the nuances of the position. If Jones is indeed a flop, that goes as much on the Steelers’ coaching staff as it does on him.
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