The Pittsburgh Steelers quite possibly “shit their pants” when T Troy Fautanu fell to them in the first round. Rarely do tackles of his pedigree last to the 20th-overall pick, but a deep tackle class aided the team. They’re likely salivating over the idea of replicating with him in Pittsburgh what they saw on his Washington tape.
“The tape was just really, really impressive,” head coach Mike Tomlin said of Fautanu after selecting him. “Not only in terms of his talent but really, I think his talents were really highlighted by the way that Washington utilized his talents schematically.”
He referred specifically to the manner in which Washington put Fautanu frequently in space. Their starting left tackle for years, they often ran plays following his lead. “Their perimeter game was very left-handed,” he recalled. “It just let you know that their left tackle was a special player in their eyes by play selection. Not very often do you watch tapes and see plays being called to highlight a guy that’s not an eligible. But that’s what it looked like Watching U-Dub tape.”
Fautanu’s combination of physicality and agility allowed the University of Washington to run their offense through him. We highlighted some examples of that shortly after the first round of the draft following Tomlin’s comments. And Fautanu believes the Steelers can do the same thing with him—whether on the left side or right side.
“I would hope,” he said when asked if the Steelers plan to utilize his skills on the perimeter via Aaron Becker. Reporters also asked him about being able to do the same at right tackle after playing left tackle. “I’m very confident in my ability, and whatever play’s called, I’m gonna try to do my best to execute my job.”
“At the same time, for me, o-line’s o-line,” Fautanu added regarding the left-to-right side distinction. Whether they run to the right or run to the left, I’m trying to dominate the guy across from me.”
Though Fautanu spent his college career playing left tackle, he said he worked right tackle in practice at Washington. The Steelers started him off at right tackle on the first day of rookie minicamp, so we’ll see if that sticks.
While the Steelers retain incumbent LT Dan Moore Jr., they want to move Broderick Jones there. Drafted in the first round a year ago, left tackle is where they drafted him to play. However, they must decide, now that they have Fautanu, how the two best complement the offense.
Jones already showed last season that he can cut it at right tackle, starting there most of last season. We have much less evidence of Fautanu’s ability to do the same, but they’ll find out this offseason. While switching sides shouldn’t impact it a great deal, his ability to excel in space could be a key factor in where they want the rookie to play. After all, it’s the quality that jumped out to the Steelers while scouting him last season.
