The Steelers Traded Away Their Last Tackle Insurance. One Bad Break Could Define Their Season.

PITTSBURGH — Four quarterbacks made the final 53-man roster. A former first-round pick did not.

Those were the headlines to emerge from Steelers headquarters as the roster deadline hit on Aug. 30, but only one of them should genuinely concern Pittsburgh as Week 1 approaches. Aaron Rodgers is still the starter. Broderick Jones is now in Dallas.

The Steelers traded the 2023 first-round offensive tackle to the Cowboys on Aug. 29, reportedly netting a third-round and a sixth-round pick while sending back Jones and a fourth-rounder. Pittsburgh got value for a player who had started 38 games across three seasons but never quite lived up to his draft billing. The deal has been graded as a win for the Steelers, at least so far.

But the timing is the problem.

Trading Broderick Jones days before the season opener leaves Pittsburgh dangerously thin at tackle, with a 40-something quarterback set to take his first meaningful snaps behind them in the Sept. 13 home game against the Atlanta Falcons. One of the articles covering the move framed it in stark terms: The Steelers are now "one bad break away from a brutal roster problem."

That is not hyperbole. Look at the tackle depth chart: Troy Fautanu, Steven Jones and Dylan Cook top the list. There is talent there, but little proven insulation beyond it. The Steelers' own fan base has been reminded to be patient with an offensive line that is expected to experience growing pains in the early portion of the schedule.

The painful irony is that the quarterback making the calls behind that line is precisely why the trade carries risk. The Steelers intentionally loaded up an unprecedented four-quarterback roster — Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and Drew Allar — to protect themselves at football's most important position. Head coach Mike McCarthy openly acknowledged the challenge of carrying four signal-callers, saying it took "a very accurate evaluation" to justify. But protecting the quarterback means more than stocking the QB room. It also means keeping pressure off his blind side, and that responsibility now falls on an unproven group.

The concern was already visible during the preseason. After opening with a 28-9 win over Green Bay, the Steelers laid an egg against the Jets, getting blanked 17-0 at Acrisure Stadium. They closed the exhibition slate with a narrow 27-28 loss in Buffalo. In that finale, McCarthy handed the reins to Howard and Allar — the young depth pieces — and while Howard apparently impressed enough to solidify his spot, the overall offensive performance was far from reassuring.

There is an argument the Steelers were simply being cautious with their veterans. The depth chart lists Fautanu, Jones and Cook as the starting tackles, and this line was always going to develop on the job. The front office made a calculated bet that a third-round pick plus cap flexibility is worth more than a player who had plateaued.

But the margin for error is now razor-thin. If one starter goes down, Pittsburgh is left asking an unproven backup to protect a legend who, whatever his age, remains the franchise's Super Bowl hope. Championship odds of 80/1 suggest the market sees this as a bridge year more than a title run, but the Steelers are not playing it that way — they traded for a starting-caliber roster and a future Hall of Famer under center.

The decision to keep four quarterbacks tells you exactly how the organization prioritizes depth. It is a shame that same philosophy did not extend to the tackle position, where the Steelers have run out of cushion before the first real snap.