The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Washington OT Troy Fautanu in the first round, and despite speculation he could kick to guard or even center in the NFL, head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan said that Fautanu would be a tackle for the team. That opened up the question of whether Broderick Jones, who Khan said earlier in this offseason would move to the left side “eventually,” would stay on the right, as Fautanu had 2,027 snaps at left tackle in his collegiate career and just two at right tackle. However, in a chat today for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gerry Dulac said that the plan remains to move Jones to the left side, his more natural position, while playing Fautanu at right tackle.
“They want to move Jones to left tackle whenever that is possible. And [Zach] Frazier will start immediately. Once Jones goes to left, Fautanu will be the RT,” Dulac wrote in response to a reader question.
That tracks with what Ray Fittipaldo said yesterday that the team would initially look at Fautanu at right tackle. The lack of college snaps on the right side means it’ll be an adjustment, much like it was for Jones last year, to play the right side. But Fautanu feels comfortable playing anywhere on the offensive line and said he got a lot of reps along the offensive line in practice, even if we didn’t see it in the games. That should hopefully make for an easier adjustment to the right side, but if it doesn’t work out, the Steelers could always change their current plan since they know what they can get out of Jones on the right side.
I think the ceiling of the offensive line is much higher with Jones on the left side, as he saw him struggle a little bit down the stretch in 2023, especially in pass protection on the right side and he’s admitted he’s more comfortable on the left side. If Fautanu can quickly grasp playing right tackle, then Jones will be more comfortable and Pittsburgh’s line as a whole should be better.
The other part of Dulac’s note comes that Zach Frazier will start immediately comes as little surprise, as the Steelers’ only other legitimate option they’ve been touting at center is Nate Herbig, who has less than 50 career regular-season snaps there. Frazier is a plug-and-play center who fell to the Steelers in the second round, and there’s little doubt that their line as a whole will function better with Frazier at the pivot.
We’ll see how things look come Week 1, but Fautanu and Frazier could both be starting, it’ll just be a question of whether or not Fautanu shows enough at right tackle to make the team comfortable with him at the position.
