Broderick
Jones.
Broderick
Jones.
Georgia· 6'5"· 311 lb· 4.97s 40
"The most explosive mover in the class with the thinnest resume to back it up — nineteen college starts asking a team to fund the last forty percent of the projection."Pre-draft read
Georgia's left tackle in 2022 and one of the most explosive movers in the class, Jones announces himself the instant he leaves his stance. He fires out with real burst, gets to the second level in a hurry, and finishes reach blocks most 311-pound tackles never get to. In protection he sets vertically off a smooth kick-slide and can mirror speed to the top of the arc.
The secondary trait is grip: once he lands, he sustains and steers. He is best on wide zone and pulls, where the athleticism does the work, and rawer on gap-scheme drive blocks that ask him to win with leverage. With only 19 college starts, the hand timing and the anchor lag behind the feet. The signature is speed — he moves like a tight end in tackle pads.
Outside-zone and wide-zone rushing offenses that let him win with range instead of raw leverage — Shanahan-tree run games, heavy pull and combo menus, and play-action pass sets off run action.
Year 1: starting right tackle in a zone-heavy run scheme with chip help against long-armed power rushers. Ceiling: a top-12 blind-side starter if the hand timing and pad level catch up to the feet.
A drop-back, seven-step pass-heavy offense that isolates its tackles on an island against long power rushers with no back or tight end help — that is exactly where his late hands and high pads get punished.
The scheme conversation with Jones is about how much of the down is spent moving. Ask him to run and hit a moving target and he is a plus starter; ask him to stand still and absorb 300 pounds of bull rush and the projection gets shaky.
Georgia OT Broderick Jones Film Breakdown
Rep-by-rep breakdown of the 2022 Georgia tape: the kick-slide, the late hands and the range as a puller.
Film Room 130 - Broderick Jones
Pre-draft film room session framing the traits-versus-experience debate that defined his board placement.
Broderick Jones Georgia Highlights || Welcome to Pittsburgh!
Career Georgia reel cut after the Steelers traded up to 14 for him.
A two-time national champion with a five-star pedigree and a basketball body, Jones entered the 2023 cycle as the tackle whose traits outran his resume. He redshirted behind a veteran Georgia line, made four emergency starts in 2021 for the injured Jamaree Salyer, then finally owned the blind side as a redshirt sophomore. Nineteen career starts is a thin sample for a top-15 lineman, and every evaluation was an argument about how much projection you would fund.
The 2022 tape justified plenty of it. Playing all 15 games at left tackle for a team that steamrolled to a second straight title, he surrendered no sacks and lived in space on Georgia's outside-zone and pull concepts, where his range as a puller and climber was the best thing on the film. The flags were technical, not physical: late, wide hands, pad level that rises against long rushers, and a habit of lunging on a two-way go.
The board settled him in the 12-to-20 range as the class's third tackle behind Paris Johnson Jr. and Peter Skoronski — appealing floor, genuinely high ceiling. Pittsburgh believed it enough to trade up three spots with New England, sending pick 17 and a fourth to get him. At 14, on a roster that had been patching tackle for years, it was a bet on tools and a bet that reps would finish the player.
- 01
Elite movement skills
a rare combination of first-step burst, range to the second level and body control that lets him reach, climb and pull like a tight end at 311 pounds.
- 02
Vertical pass sets
a fast, smooth kick-slide that gets him to the top of the arc against speed without forcing him to open his hips early or bail on his landmarks.
- 03
Grip and sustain
powerful hands with a vise-like grip; once he fits, he steers and finishes, and he rarely lets a defender disengage late in the rep.
- 04
Run-game explosion
he uncoils out of his stance and creates real displacement on down blocks and combos, a genuine plus on outside zone and duo concepts.
- 05
Highest-level résumé
15 starts at left tackle for a Georgia offense that won a national title, with no sacks allowed and consistent work against SEC edge talent.
- 01
Hand timing
his punch arrives late and often too wide, letting rushers into his frame first and turning what should be clean reps into recoveries.
- 02
Pad level
plays tall against long rushers and loses the leverage battle on bull rushes, which is where his anchor gets tested and sometimes gives ground.
- 03
Lunging habit
he overcommits when given a two-way go, and counter moves back inside catch him mid-stride with his weight already over his toes.
- 04
Experience
only 19 career starts and one full season as a starter; the pass-set details and rush-plan recognition are behind where his athleticism is.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.97sp50
- Vertical
- 30inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Georgia | 3 |
| 2021 | Georgia | 15 |
| 2022 | Georgia | 15 |
| Career | — | 33 |
Offensive line: no counting stats. Games and starts verified against StatMuse game logs (2020-2022); season totals sum to the 33 games / 19 starts career line.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A long-term, physically gifted starting tackle who wins with movement and grip while living with occasional leverage losses against power.
The version where the athleticism is paired with elite hand timing and the pass sets become airtight — Jones flashed this movement profile but never the technical consistency.
The cautionary version: top-15 traits, thin start sample, and technique that never closed the gap on the athleticism.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Broderick Jones started 11 games at right tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers in his rookie season, showing potential as a foundational offensive lineman.
Pittsburgh moved him to right tackle immediately, which meant the raw part of his game got tested on the side he had never played. He came off the bench as a rookie in 2023, took over the job in Week 9 after Chukwuma Okorafor's benching, and finished with 11 starts in 17 games. In 2024 he was an every-down player, 16 regular-season starts at right tackle and the second-most offensive snaps on the roster, and the tape matched the scouting report exactly: dominant when asked to move, exposed when a long rusher walked him back into the pocket. Pittsburgh let Dan Moore Jr. walk in 2025 and finally handed Jones the blind side. He was playing his best football there — one penalty on 643 snaps through 11 games — before a neck injury in Week 12 against Chicago ended his season and required a spinal fusion.
The honest verdict is a starter, not a star, with a health question stapled to it. Pittsburgh declined the fifth-year option in May 2026 rather than guarantee $19.1 million, and drafted Max Iheanachor 21st overall as insurance, which tells you how the team reads the same tape. Three teams' worth of hindsight would say the athleticism was real and the technique never fully caught up — the 19-start sample was a warning, not a footnote. He was never a bust; he started 38 games in three years and blocked for 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He also never became the tackle you take at 14.
Data note: Offensive line: no counting stats. Games and starts verified against StatMuse game logs (2020-2022); season totals sum to the 33 games / 19 starts career line.