The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 offseason practices concluded in the middle of June. Next up is the team’s annual training camp, which gets underway in the latter part of July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of Steelers training camp, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time as part of a multi-post series. This Steelers roster preview, which includes outlooks for every player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow. This series figures to exceed 90 players this year as the team can carry 91 players in total during the offseason due to the allowance of one international player designation.
The next set of three players we will preview ahead of the Steelers’ 2024 training camp are Jalen Elliott, Troy Fautanu, and Breiden Fehoko.
S Jalen Elliott: A Notre Dame product, Elliott entered the NFL in 2020 with the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent. He went on to spend his entire rookie season on the Lions’ practice squad. While Elliott appeared in eight games with the Lions in 2021 with one official start, he only managed to log 92 total defensive snaps with 140 more on special teams. Most of Elliott’s 2021 defensive snaps came at free safety. However, he did log some box snaps.
Since Elliott’s time with the Lions ended in May 2022, he has been a short-time member of the New England Patriots and Las Vegas Raiders prior to him signing with the Steelers last August. After failing to make the Steelers’ roster last year out of the preseason, he managed to spend a few short stints on the team’s practice squad later in the season. The Steelers signed Elliott to a Reserve/Future contract this past January and he’s been on the offseason roster since.
Outlook: While Elliott appears to have position flexibility at safety, it will still be very tough for him to make the Steelers’ 53-man roster out training camp and the preseason. Even so, he does have some limited NFL playing experience to go along with special teams snaps. We should see a fair amount of Elliott during the preseason if he remains on the roster up until that point.
With Elliott already having logged a little bit of practice squad time around the NFL, including several weeks in Pittsburgh, he realistically could find himself battling for a spot on that unit as the summer progresses. In short, he will need a few key breaks, such as injuries, this summer to ultimately find himself on the 53-man roster come the start of the Steelers’ regular season.
OT Troy Fautanu: The Steelers selected Fautanu in the first-round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Washington, where he played over 2,000 offensive snaps. Most of them came at left tackle. While Fautanu might be undersized in height by most standards as an NFL tackle at 6036, he makes up for that with great arm length at 34.5 inches. He was an athletic tackle at Washington and thus can get out in space quickly and fluidly.
According to Pro Football Focus, Fautanu only gave up three sacks during his entire college career on over 1,300 pass-blocking plays. Last season, PFF graded out Fautanu overall at 75.5 with an 88.2 pass-blocking grade.
Outlook: The hope for Fautanu this summer is that he’ll emerge from training camp as a starter. By the sound of things ahead of training camp, Fautanu is likely to compete with veteran Dan Moore Jr. for the starting right tackle position. While Fautanu didn’t play many snaps at right tackle in college, the position is not completely foreign to him as he did play on that side some in high school.
This year marked the second consecutive year one the Steelers selected a tackle in the first round of a draft as Broderick Jones was the selection in 2023. Jones figures to switch over to left tackle this summer so there’s a decent chance he and Fautanu could wind up as the team’s regular-season opener starters. Should Fautanu ultimately not open the regular season as a starter, it shouldn’t take him long to achieve such a role.
DT Breiden Fehoko: Signed by the Steelers as a free agent in April 2023, Fehoko started last season on the team’s practice squad. However, injuries to the Steelers’ defensive line in 2023 required that Fehoko be signed to the 53-man roster just a few weeks into the season. Even so, Fehoko was a gameday inactive player for all but one game that he was on the 53-man roster. He did not see any playing time in that Week 5 contest in which he received a helmet.
The Steelers waived Fehoko in the middle of November, and he was re-signed to the practice squad after that transaction. In March, the Steelers re-signed Fehoko to their offseason roster, and he has been with the team throughout OTAs and mandatory minicamp.
Outlook: The Steelers have quite a few defensive linemen under contract ahead of the team starting training camp this year. With Fehoko mainly being a defensive tackle-type, he has his work cut out for him this summer when it comes to making the initial 53-man roster. He should get plenty of preseason playing time once those games get underway.
Realistically, Fehoko will ultimately be battling for a spot on the practice squad, barring any injuries happening ahead of his spot on the depth chart. He has logged a lot of NFL practice squad time since entering the league as an undrafted free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers. In total, Fehoko has logged 420 NFL defensive snaps with 103 more on special teams. At the very least, he brings real-game experience to training camp with him this year.
Previous Posts In This Series:
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Montravius Adams, Kyle Allen, Spencer Anderson
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Grayland Arnold, Calvin Austin III, Anthony Averett
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Kalon Barnes, Tyler Beach, Keeanu Benton
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Beanie Bishop Jr., Chris Boswell, Marquez Callaway
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Jack Colletto, Dylan Cook, Jacob Copeland
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — James Daniels, Daijun Edwards, DeShon Elliott
