Buy Or Sell: Troy Fautanu will be a Day One starter for the Steelers despite his injury setback.
Explanation: Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Steelers are already sold on Troy Fautanu. He suggests that they already view him as their second-best lineman, presumably behind Broderick Jones. And despite the fact that he will miss a week or two with an MCL sprain, they plan to start him as soon as he is healthy. That suggests he should start for the Steelers in the season opener on September 9, but will he?
Buy:
The Steelers drafted Troy Fautanu to play right away, and he is going to. As long as he is healthy in time for the start of the regular season, he will start. And there is no reason to think that he won’t be ready by then, his timeline being just a week or two. The Steelers said they didn’t know he hurt his knee until he asked for a brace, evidently playing through it.
The alternative to Fautanu starting is just…stupid. Until Fautanu enters the starting lineup, the Steelers are leaving Broderick Jones at right tackle. And even though they aren’t moving him now, they very much want Jones at left tackle. For some reason, they seem to be overconfident about the ease at which he can just flip.
But I digress. The bottom line is that Troy Fautanu has already shown enough to start, not without growing pains along the way. He will learn through experience and shouldn’t hurt the team as he gains the necessary experience.
Sell:
Let’s start with the fact that Gerry Dulac doesn’t have the greatest track record with the accuracy of his reports. While this appears to be information a source he trusts fed to him, it’s a bit hard to swallow. Troy Fautanu was a little shaky in his preseason debut, and now he will be sidelined for a week or two?
Even if he does end up starting the season opener, it’s crazy to say that he already has that locked up. It’s not like Dan Moore Jr. had done poorly for himself this offseason; rather, the opposite, in fact. I’m sure the Steelers love Fautanu, but they also see that he still needs a bit of seasoning. And so he will have to wait, even if that wait isn’t very long.
With the Steelers’ 2023 season in the rearview mirror following a disappointing year that came up short in the playoffs once again, it’s time to start asking more questions. Questions about the team’s future in 2024 and beyond. Questions about The Standard.
The rookie class of a year ago was, on the whole, impressive, but they need to step up into staple starters in 2024. And they needed a strong influx of talent in both free agency and in the 2024 NFL draft yet again. In addition to a revisitation of the coaching staff.
These sorts of uncertainties are what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
