PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Mike Tomlin said a couple of different times during his weekly news conference on Tuesday how they can’t keep getting Aaron Rodgers hit. The Steelers head coach also discussed his first-round tackles leading up to the home opener Sunday.
Only the Cardinals and Titans allowed more sacks in Week One than the four the Jets got on the Steelers. Tomlin pointed out a couple of times you have to credit the play of the Jets as well as self-evaluate.
“I would like to see us do a better job of protecting Aaron, particularly on play passes,” Tomlin said. “You absorb certain risks executing play pass in an effort to get yards in chucks, but that risk shouldn’t manifest itself in the form of multiple sacks like it did when you are prepared and good.”
He said that preparation part is up to the coaching staff, as well as the entire group to improve. A lot of attention on left tackle Broderick Jones as former Steelers offensive lineman Trai Essex was critical of his play on the Fan Morning Show on Monday.
“Certainly, it could be better, but certainly all of our performances could be better,” Tomlin said when asked about Jones’ performance specifically. “As I mentioned, our quarterback got hit too much and he was a component of that.”
While Jones played there in small doses of all three preseason games, but this was his first game of being the guy at left tackle. The 2023 first-round pick from Georgia was brought in to be the replacement for Dan Moore, but he was moved to the right side when he didn’t beat him out and stayed there after Troy Fautanu’s injury in Week One last year.
Jones appeared to struggle the first couple of practices of 2025 training camp, but showed steady improvement and that translated to the preseason games. As Tomlin mentioned, credit to the Jets as Will McDonald had a pair of those sacks after 10.5 last season for New York.
Quinnen Williams had a sack as well and has 23.5 in his last three seasons.
Tomlin bristled at potential concerns about a lack of confidence for the 24-year-old Jones, now in his third season.
“You don’t get to the National Football League by being fragile emotionally,” Tomlin said. “There are a lot of confident guys I work 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.”
Right tackle Troy Fautanu could be better according to Tomlin, but he had some good moments. It was just Fautanu’s second career NFL game.
More than just the pass protection, the Steelers head coach needs to see more than 53 rushing yards.
“We would like to run the ball more,” Tomlin said. “We had zero explosion runs (10-plus yards). Didn’t have enough runs in totality, the Jets had a lot to do with that, they possessed the ball.”
To get those 53 yards, the Steelers needed to run it 20 times. That was better than only the Bengals, Lions and Browns in the opening week. Jaylen Warren had 11 carries for 37 to lead them.
Tomlin said there is a lot to learn. Sunday is the second test.