Steelers LT Broderick Jones, a ‘blessed child,’ was always destined for greatness

Broderick Jones goes by many names.

His brother and sisters call him “Tubby,” a nickname befitting an offensive lineman who stands 6-foot-5, 315 pounds. His grandmother uses his middle name, Bernard. To coaches, he’s “Sweet Feet,” for the way the former basketball player moves athletically along the offensive line, or “Baby Broderick,” for his affable nature.

But to his mother, Tawana Jones? Her youngest has always been her “blessed child.”

See, when Tawana was pregnant for the second time with her second daughter, she swore she was done having kids. She planned to have a procedure to prevent future pregnancies. Just one problem.

“They couldn’t find my tubes to tie them,” she told The Athletic.

Soon, her family had doubled in size, as a pair of boys joined the two girls at the dinner table. First came Roderick, whom the family affectionately calls “Tank.” And then on May 16, 2001, Broderick was born.

“I didn’t think I wanted any more kids,” Tawana said. “But I guess God thought different.”

Unexpected but loved unconditionally, Broderick Jones had come into this world for a reason, the family believed. They always felt he was destined for greatness.

“My grandmother always said he would be a (professional) football player,” Tawana said.

On April 27, 2023, his great-grandmother’s prediction came to fruition. The Steelers traded up in the first round for just the fourth time in franchise history, exchanging a fourth-round pick with the Patriots, to move from No. 17 to No. 14 to select the offensive tackle out of Georgia.

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For any athlete who reaches the highest level, the road is dotted with sacrifices, obstacles and strong-willed people leading the way. For Broderick Jones — who celebrates his 22nd birthday Tuesday — his story is one of an unexpected life, untimely death and unwavering loyalty.

More than anything, he’s a product of the tight-knit family that was there for him every step along the way.

Broderick Jones at the Steelers’ rookie minicamp. (Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers)

Sneakers squeaked to a halt and mouths hung agape inside Lithonia (Ga.) High School as students tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed.

During a pickup game, Broderick Jones flew through the air and slammed home the basketball. The glass backboard shattered into pieces in almost Shaquille O’Neal fashion.

“We couldn’t play basketball in the gym for two weeks. The basketball coach was pissed,” Lithonia principal Darrick McCray told The Athletic. “The first time (Jones) gets his first check, I’m going to tell him we’re still waiting. We still got $5,000 of backboard that you broke.”

That baby with big feet didn’t take long to prove his athletic prowess, towering at 6-foot-4 in seventh grade. By the time McCray met him, Jones was a “freak-of-nature freshman,” a dominant force any time he donned the Lithonia black and gold.

Like his mother, a former point guard and defensive stopper, he loved the hardwood. Jones was a double-double machine, leading Lithonia to back-to-back 5A state final fours alongside Eric Gaines, who is now a point guard at UAB. While the big man bullied opponents inside, he always tried to persuade his coach to let him take a few 3s.

“I had a little shot,” Jones said with a smirk at the combine.

However, Jones’ big body and roots in SEC country made him destined for the football field — first as a defensive tackle before everyone saw his first-round potential on the offensive line and convinced him to switch positions.

The high school highlights came in bunches. There was the time he blocked a kid through the back of the end zone, right into a camera. The time he raced downfield on a bubble screen, catching the receiver with speed that was clocked at 4.6. (After adding about 40 pounds, his 4.97 40-yard dash was the fastest among offensive linemen at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.)

But everyone’s favorite highlight?

Jones blocked a defensive lineman off the field and through the sideline, sat him on the bench and patted him on the head.

“He was like, ‘Hey, Coach, I had to take him home,’” former Lithonia offensive line coach Robert Hamler recalled.

One afternoon during Jones’ freshman year, former Alabama assistant coach Tosh Lupoi visited Lithonia to recruit Jordan Smith, an edge rusher who went on to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“’Man, I got this freshman that’s unbelievable,’” former Lithonia head football coach Marcus Jelks remembered saying. “When I went to find (Jones), he wasn’t at school that day.”

Jones’ phone buzzed with a FaceTime from his head coach … or what he thought was his head coach. He answered to find the former Alabama assistant coach staring back at him.

“(Broderick) was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m not at school. If I was there, they might have offered me,’” Jelks remembers. “He didn’t miss too many more days after that.”

Soon offers were piling up, and coaches were coming from all corners of the country to recruit the up-and-coming lineman.

Whether Jones was lighting up the scoreboard or sitting on the bench, his family was a fixture at games. Grandma. Grandpa. Sisters. Brother. Mom, of course. Cousins. Everyone down to his little nephew named King.

“Always,” Tawana Jones said. “Always.”

Only one person was missing.

When Jones was just 5, his father, Roosevelt Dotson, died from pneumonia. Tawana found herself grieving, saddled with the responsibility of raising her four kids without a father.

“My mom, she does a lot for my family,” Broderick Jones said. “Just being able to watch her and see what she did for us growing up, she sacrificed a lot.”

Broderick grew into what his mother described as a “spitting image” of a father he wished he had the chance to know more — the size, the facial features, all of it. His family moved around often but remained together no matter which walls they called home.

He began to gravitate toward coaches who could guide his journey beyond just the playing field. The head football coach, the basketball coach, the principal and others at the school became part of his extended network.

“She put men around him that knew and cared about Broderick for the person that he is,” said Wallace Corker, who was Lithonia’s basketball coach and high school counselor. “She was smart enough and strategic enough to know that her son was going to be loved at Lithonia and treated well and not just be used as the athlete.”

Often, Jones found himself sitting in the office of Jessie Wilcher, the head of the custodial staff, discussing life or family — or simply goofing off.

“That’s a very connected family,” Wilcher said. “He used to say, ‘I gotta make it. I gotta look out for my mom. I’ve seen what my mom goes through. I can’t let her go through this.'”

“Family. That’s all Broderick is about. Family.”

Tempers flared and fists flew outside Lithonia High School. An emotional pep rally had spilled into the bus lane, spiraling into a brawl.

At least six kids clashed in the middle of the madness. As students huddled around to watch, big Broderick Jones waded through the crowd of cellphones and screaming classmates.

“He’s grabbing (fighters), pulling them into the cafeteria,” McCray remembers.

Jones ordered them, “Stay in here. Don’t go anywhere.” Then, he went back outside and grabbed another. And another.

“None of the kids dared to swing back at him because he had that type of respect,” McCray said. “He had street credibility respect. And then he had respect of his teachers. Very rarely do you get that from students.”

Jones grew into an intimidating force on the field. But underneath the muscle and mass, his heart was as big as his frame. Rather than join a fight, he was the first one to break it up.

Life had dealt Jones many tough cards. With his family behind him, he wrapped his 34 3/4-inch arms around the school.

After basketball practices, he’d go into the baseball dugout and cheer on the team. When recruiting letters started pouring in by the crate, Jones brought them into school and passed them out to his classmates so they could share in his experience. He eventually won the Bulldog Award, given to the Lithonia student with the most school spirit.

“He’s always trying his best to help anybody,” Jones’ best friend from high school, Juan Espinoza, said. “If we see a homeless guy, if he has it, he’s gonna help him out. … It’s impossible to hate this guy. Like everybody loves him at school.”

Blessed to be here. 🙏🏾#NeverGoingHollywood pic.twitter.com/EkKdvsIvog

— Broderick Jones (@millionairemov3) December 31, 2022

Jones formed a special bond with Wilcher. When he won trophies for his numerous on-field accolades, he passed those out, too.

“He used to come in my office, and we’d sit down and talk. I was like, ‘Broderick, are you going to take this (trophy)?’ Wilcher said. “He’d say, ‘You can keep it, I got too many.’ He’s just like that.

“I said, ‘These are going to be valuable one day. Watch. And you ain’t getting them back.'”

Broderick Jones cruised down Marbut Road in Lithonia, riding his dirt bike like a surfboard. One hand on the handlebars. One hand on his cell phone, broadcasting live on social media.

“He’d be doing freakish things on those dirt bikes,” Jelks, the football coach, said. “I’m like, ‘Dude, you can’t do that.’”

Motorcycles. Dirt bikes. ATVs. Anything that had wheels and went fast, Jones was into as a kid. In many ways, it was a cultural thing. His mother is a motorcycle enthusiast, and this is a way of life throughout Georgia.

But as Jones blossomed into a five-star prospect — ranked by many recruiting services as the second-best offensive tackle in his class — and committed to Georgia, he began having hard conversations about risk and reward.

Those concerns came to a head in the summer after Jones’ senior year of high school. The way Jelks described it, Jones was riding a motorized scooter with a group of friends. One person tumbled, setting off a chain reaction. Hamler said Jones got hit by a car and “tore up his foot pretty good.”

While Jones escaped without any broken bones or torn ligaments, the scare got his attention. Calls came from many people close to Jones.

“We definitely had a couple of serious conversations about it,” Jelks said. “He was definitely receptive at that point. … ‘All right, Coach, I’m done with the bikes.’”

After the draft, Jones went back to visit several high schools in Georgia and spoke about the crash — explaining to students the importance of thinking about your future. He decided that having pet snakes — he has two, named Pablo and Piper — was a better hobby for a football player.

But first, he had to deal with the consequences. The deep gash in his foot forced Jones to miss the beginning of his first college season, setting the tone for what became a humbling start to his college journey.

Jones returned from injury to find himself in the middle of the “Dog Drill,” a series of one-on-ones against Georgia’s talented defensive front. Six players who would all go on to become first-round picks took turns rushing against Jones, back to back to back.

“I lost every single rep,” Jones said. “It humbled me, but I just continued to work.”

Through his first two seasons at Georgia, Jones toiled as primarily a backup. He appeared in just two games as a true freshman in 2020. Those early years were about maturing on and off the field.

The Bulldogs coaching staff challenged Jones to be more physical in the run game and get stronger at the point of attack. Sometimes, head coach Kirby Smart would get on the loudspeaker at practice to make his point.

“He’s become more coachable,” Smart said ahead of the 2021 season. “We used to tell him something, he got offended by it. Now he embraces it and says, ‘I’ll work on that.’”

During his redshirt freshman season in 2021, an injury opened the door for Jones to start the final four games of the regular season. However, entering the national championship game, the starting left tackle — Jamaree Salyer, who would be drafted in the sixth round by the Chargers in 2022 — returned from injury. Jones didn’t expect to see the field at all.

As the Bulldogs struggled to run the ball and protect Stetson Bennett against Alabama’s stout defensive front, offensive line coach Matt Luke approached in the middle of the second quarter.

“I just remember coach Luke coming up telling me like, ‘Hey, get ready. You’re gonna go in,’” Jones said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, God.’ I didn’t know what to expect. I was stressed out a little bit.”

Salyer moved to right guard, making way at left tackle for Jones, who helped open running lanes and gave Bennett enough time to throw. Georgia rallied from a 9-3 second-quarter deficit to claim a 33-18 victory.

Stetson Bennett and Broderick Jones during Georgia’s national championship victory over Alabama. (Zach Bolinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Shortly after that game, coach Mike Tomlin visited Athens as a part of his regular pre-draft circuit. The Steelers’ head man broke bread with a handful of draft-eligible Bulldogs and posed a question.

“’Give me a name that we’re going to be back for in 12 months,’” Tomlin remembers saying. “Universally, Broderick’s was the guy’s name that we got. That was the first time I really heard his name.”

Soon, everyone would know Jones’ name, as he climbed draft boards. During his redshirt sophomore season in 2022, Jones started all 15 games at left tackle on the way to Georgia’s second consecutive national championship. He didn’t allow a single sack and was flagged just once for a pre-snap penalty.

Steelers assistant general manager Andy Weidl, who set the team’s draft board with an emphasis on building in the trenches, attended the South Carolina game and SEC championship in person to get a closer view of the eventual first-round pick.

One of the first things Steelers AGM Andy Weidl does in evaluations is watch rivalry games. The 8th play of Georgia-Florida here's what he'd have seen: Two future Steelers working together (TE #0 and LT #59) pic.twitter.com/shkPv8Yj34

— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) May 1, 2023

What he saw was a player who had grown — on and off the field.

“To watch his arc in performance and his trajectory, he just kept getting better as the year went on,” said Weidl, a former offensive lineman at Villanova. “He’s a guy who has tremendous feet. Balance. The ability to pass protect in space, and he’s also got the explosive power to displace people at the line of scrimmage. … With his range, you can open up your offense more.”

On draft night, Broderick Jones settled into his sofa. The room was packed with so many people who have shaped his life. Cousins. Coaches. Classmates.

When the call from Tomlin finally came, Jones was almost in disbelief. He hung up the phone and sat silently, soaking it all in.

The look when @millionairemov3 found out he was a Pittsburgh Steeler 😏 pic.twitter.com/gv8yGQAmPh

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 28, 2023

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On the field, Jones should be an instant upgrade, ideally protecting Kenny Pickett’s blind side for the next decade. Off the field, the fit is just as snug — and not just because Jones is back in black and gold again. A family-oriented lineman comes to an organization with the Rooney family in the owner’s box and a culture of continuity. Beyond that, a player who gravitated toward coaches comes to a team with Tomlin, who has always embraced the mentorship side of his job title.

“Broderick is going to eat that up,” Jelks said.

As Jones’ mother wrapped her arm around her youngest child, the tears began the flow. The “blessed child” destined for the NFL had fulfilled the dream that began all those years ago.

“We went through a lot,” Tawana Jones said. “We struggled. You know, we had our ups and downs. It was more downs. But we stuck together and made it happen.”

(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; photo: Todd Rosenberg / Getty Images)