The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Washington OT Troy Fautanu at 20th overall in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft Thursday night and on the heels of that pick, we’ll have quite a few video breakdowns of his play in college. Ahead of us getting to those, however, I thought you might like to see a breakdown of Fautanu by former NFL head coach Mike Martz, who now produces content for the 33rd Team site.
Martz explains in his video breakdown what all that he loves about Fautanu and why he’s not overly concerned about his relative lack of height. Quite a bit of the All-22 tape that Martz uses in his video breakdown of Fautanu is from the Washington game against Michigan last season.
“Troy is a pretty special player, I really like him a lot,” Martz says at the end of his video breakdown. “I think to project him in the NFL is actually pretty easy. I think he can play left tackle. He’s so athletic and his pass sets, he’s just there from a skill level. The transition is not gonna be real hard for him. He’s quick enough to be out there. He lacks the height, but he does have good reach.”
Martz went on to say that Fautanu enters the NFL starter-ready from a technique standpoint.
“He’s gonna play, he’s gonna start, he’s gonna be one of the starting five, we know that,” Martz said of Fautanu. “But I think, it depends on who you have at left tackle, his technique is better probably than 50 percent of the starters in the league when I watch him.”
Based on what Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Thursday night after the team selected Fautanu, it sounds like he will stay at tackle for now and thus be given every opportunity to earn a starting job there, either on the left or the right side. Fautanu played over 2,000 snaps at left tackle during his college career with just two snaps at right tackle.
The big knock on Fautanu ahead of the draft was the fact that he measured in at just 6036. He does, however, possess 34.5-inch arms, and he knows how to use them.
Tomlin didn’t sound concerned about Fautanu’s lack of height Thursday night.
“You know, what are we talking about? You know, if he was a quarter of inch taller, you might not be asking that,” Tomlin said during the post-Fautanu selection press conference. “He’s got great arm length, and his tape is very, very impressive. It’s probably one of the reasons why he was available to us, so we really probably appreciate his stature, to be quite honest with you.”
Enjoy the Martz breakdown video of Fautanu and look forward to more video breakdowns on the Steelers’ first-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft soon.
