Steelers trade Broderick Jones and a 4th round pick to the Dallas Cowboys, and the 2023 draft looks better than you think

The Steelers traded Broderick Jones and a fourth-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday for a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported, ending a three-year run that started with a trade up and finishes two days before the roster deadline.

It isn’t a heist. It’s something more useful than that: real value for a player who was two days from being cut for nothing.

The price

Consider what Pittsburgh was actually selling. Jones is in the final year of his rookie deal after the Steelers declined his fifth-year option in the spring. He had spinal fusion surgery eight months ago. He’d bounced between left and right tackle all summer, showed up lighter than his listed playing weight, and allowed five pressures and two sacks against the Jets earlier this month. NFL.com’s Kevin Patra had listed him this week as a candidate to be released outright.

You don’t usually get a third-round pick for that player. You get a conditional seventh, or you get nothing and eat the cut.

For context, when Pittsburgh sent George Pickens to this same Cowboys front office in May 2025, the return was a 2026 third-rounder plus a late-round swap in the Steelers’ favor — Dallas got a 2027 sixth, Pittsburgh got a 2027 fifth. That third became pick No. 76, which Omar Khan spent on Drew Allar. Getting comparable Day 2 value for an injured tackle on an expiring contract, without sending anything back the other way, is the better deal of the two.

It also tells you something about how Pittsburgh feels about Max Iheanachor. The rookie first-rounder missed more than two weeks of camp with a shoulder and neck injury and has played sparingly. You don’t move a tackle in the last 48 hours before cutdowns unless you’re confident in who’s behind him.

About that draft class

Jones is the first of the three offensive tackles Pittsburgh has drafted in the last four years to be traded, and he’s the one they moved up for. That stings. The Steelers sent picks 17 and 120 to New England to climb three spots to 14 — and New England used No. 17 on Christian Gonzalez, who has become exactly the corner Pittsburgh thought it was drafting a tackle. Jaxon Smith-Njigba went 20th to Seattle.

It also happened to be Omar Khan’s first draft as general manager, which is why this one gets graded harder than most. Your first draft is the one people use to decide who you are.

That’s the version of the story where 2023 is a disaster. It isn’t the accurate version.

Look at the rest of it:

• Joey Porter Jr. (No. 32) is the lockdown corner this franchise has been searching for the better part of a decade.

• Keeanu Benton (No. 49) is a starting interior defensive lineman.

• Darnell Washington (No. 93) just signed a four-year, $42 million extension.

• Nick Herbig (No. 132) signed a four-year, $100 million deal in June.

• Spencer Anderson (No. 251) is still on the roster in a seventh-round pick’s dream scenario.

That’s four players from one class who project to make this year’s 53, two of them on nine-figure or near-nine-figure money. A draft that produces a No. 1 corner, a starting nose tackle, a paid tight end and a $100 million edge rusher is a good draft, full stop — and a hell of a first one for a general manager. The first-rounder missing is the part everyone remembers, but it’s one line on a page that mostly went right.

What it means for Sunday

Pittsburgh now has 24 hours to get to 53 with one fewer tackle. Troy Fautanu and Dylan Cook are the bookends, Iheanachor is the swing, and the depth behind them is thin enough that Brock Hoffman’s roster odds just improved considerably.

For Jones, Dallas is a clean landing spot. Terence Steele has been inconsistent, the Cowboys have been shuffling tackles all camp, and Jones is 25 with first-round traits and a contract year to prove something. He’ll get a real chance to earn his next deal, which is more than he was going to get in Pittsburgh.