Broderick Jones has been medically cleared.
Steelers general manager Omar Khan said Tuesday that Jones is expected to participate early in training camp, according to The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo. Two months ago, nobody in the building would say when that would happen, or whether it would happen at all.
“Omar Khan also says they’re being smart about tackle Broderick Jones (neck) and aren’t sure where he is strength/conditioning wise, but he is medically cleared to practice,” ESPN’s Brooke Pryor reported.
This is the best news Pittsburgh got on day one in Latrobe.
The severity here has been consistently understated since the moment it occurred.
Jones hurt his neck in the fourth quarter of a Week 12 loss at Chicago in 2025, blocking Bears defensive lineman Dominique Robinson, who came down on the back of his head. The Steelers initially called it a stinger. Mike Tomlin called him week to week. Jones went on injured reserve, never played again, and finished the year at 11 games.
Then DeFabo reported in March that the injury had required spinal fusion surgery, and the tone of the entire story changed.
“Obviously, he had a significant injury,” Khan said at the combine, declining to guarantee Jones would be ready for camp.
The concern was never really about a depth chart. Two recent Steelers, Trenton Thompson and Ryan Watts, retired from football because of neck injuries. That history sat underneath every non-answer the team gave this spring, and Jones did not have one either when he spoke at OTAs in May.
“They’re just monitoring it day by day,” Jones said, via Chris Harlan of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, adding that he had never been given a timeline.
He was doing individual work then and had not been cleared for team drills. Ten weeks later, he is cleared for camp.
Where Broderick Jones Fits On The Steelers Offensive Line
Getting healthy and getting his job back are separate problems.
The Steelers moved on from Jones in every way a team can short of releasing him this offseason. They declined his fifth-year option in April, walking away from $19.07 million in 2027, and drafted tackle Max Iheanachor in the first round that same month at No. 21 overall. Troy Fautanu, the 20th pick in 2024, has spent the offseason shifting to left tackle, the spot Jones held. Dylan Cook closed 2025 well enough to hold the right side.
Jones took the roster math about as gracefully as anyone could, considering the circumstances.
“It’s all a business at the end of the day,” he said of the Iheanachor pick.
He is entering the final year of the rookie deal Pittsburgh signed him to after trading up to take him 14th overall out of Georgia in 2023, and he has said he expects to work on both sides of the line. Before the neck injury, durability was never the issue. He played all 17 games in each of his first two seasons and started every game he appeared in during 2025.
What he needs now is reps, and camp is where a fourth-year tackle with something to prove either forces his way back into the picture or watches a rookie take the job for good.
The clearance was the hard part. The rest is football.
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