Most of the pre-draft conversations surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers draft needs include the idea that a right tackle is near the top of the list. Chris Simms went through a mock draft scenario on his Unbuttoned podcast and curiously had the Steelers selecting LT Olu Fashanu out of Penn State.
“[Fashanu’s], by a lot of people, looked at as a safe guy because the way he pass protects ,” Simms said in a video of his podcast posted on YouTube. “Here’s another one that I would tell you is a little all over the place with some of my friends that I talked to in the NFL.”
Simms also agreed with his co-host that Fashanu is a true left tackle, which would keep Jones on the right side.
“I think the teams that value run game and all that really don’t like Fashanu,” Simms said. “So that’s the problem, but either way the Steelers have a need there.”
At one point viewed as the first or second-best tackle in the draft, Fashanu has been receiving less buzz than some of the other tackle prospects as of late. While he is spectacular in pass protection, allowing zero sacks in college, he doesn’t have the competitive toughness to finish plays or drive defenders back when blocking for the run. That doesn’t sound like an ideal fit for Pittsburgh who intend on being a run-first offense. GM Omar Khan also stated his desire to move Jones back to the left side and said that is eventually the goal.
The Steelers traded up three spots last year to draft Broderick Jones as the left tackle of the future, but those plans became complicated when Jones failed to win the Week 1 job at left tackle to Dan Moore Jr. He ended up starting one game at left tackle due to an injury in Week 5, but then went on to start the final 11 games including the Wild Card round of the playoffs at right tackle.
He was already relatively inexperienced coming out of college, with just 19 starts at Georgia, and all of his experience was on the left side. Some players have an easier time transitioning from side to side, but generally, it can be a difficult process. The basic mechanics of playing offensive line get committed to muscle memory, so learning how to flip everything over with the footwork and punching with the opposite arm can create issues for some players. Look no further than Kevin Dotson, who struggled on the left in Pittsburgh before becoming one of the best guards in the league for the LA Rams on the right side.
If the Steelers fail to find a way to move Jones back to the left, he will have more right tackle experience on his resume than left tackle by midway through the season.
All that being said, Mike Tomlin was a little less commital on the idea of moving Jones back to the left side. Following the season, he stated that Jones has shown he is capable on either side, and they don’t have any concrete plans to move him back to the left.
The Steelers did not bring Fashanu in for a pre-draft visit and haven’t had any reported interest in him throughout the process, but they have shown plenty of interest in Washington LT Troy Fautanu. Drafting him would bring up many of these same issues with the desire to move Jones back to the left side.
