The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the midst of the pre-draft process. They’re meeting with prospects and traveling to Pro Days, getting all the information they can. It takes time, but it’s all very important. There’s only so much that teams can learn based on watching film. They often use meetings to get to know prospects as people, trying to see if they’re good fits for their locker room. Former NFL quarterback Cardale Jones recently detailed how his pre-draft meeting with the Steelers soured him on them.
And that is putting it mildly.
“I walked in and the first thing Coach [Mike] Tomlin said to me was, ‘I hate your social media,’” Jones said on The Script podcast. “I’m just like, ‘Nice to meet you, too.’ As we’re getting to talk and getting to know each other a little bit, it was someone, and I couldn’t even see who this guy was, he was probably in the very back of the room where it had to be 20-25 people…
“He’s asking how does my day go at Ohio State. I’m trying to be as detailed as possible… Every time I’m trying to get into detail, he’s cutting me off. So, I turned into a straight jerk… I went full blown, ‘F you, F Steelers, I don’t even want to be here anymore…’ Everything I was saying, he was trying to talk over me, cut me off. That was by far the weirdest experience I had throughout that whole process.”
Jones played at Ohio State from 2012-2015, and at one time, he looked like one of the most promising college quarterbacks. Despite that, Tomlin’s distaste of his social media isn’t too surprising. Jones got a one-game suspension as a freshman for taking to Twitter to complain about having to go to class. He didn’t want to “play school,” believing that he was there only for football.
For what it’s worth, Jones ultimately got his degree from Ohio State in 2017. However, his NFL career didn’t go the way he expected. He had a rough final season in Columbus that tanked his draft stock. As a result, he fell to the fourth round of the 2016 draft before getting selected by the Buffalo Bills.
The Steelers had plenty of chances to draft Jones, but they were right to pass on him. Jones appeared in one game as a rookie, although he didn’t start. He completed six of his 11 pass attempts for 96 yards and one interception.
Jones was traded to the Los Angeles Chargers after his rookie year, but he never appeared in a game for them. They released him in 2019, and he tried to catch on with the Seattle Seahawks. However, they let him go after Jones spent a little over a week on their practice squad.
While Jones got frustrated with the Steelers, that was likely their intent. NFL teams sometimes play mind games with prospects during the pre-draft process to gain more insight on them. Plenty of players have detailed odd experiences with teams. The Steelers probably wanted to see how Jones would react in a frustrating situation, and it doesn’t sound like he passed their test.