The tackle competition for the Pittsburgh Steelers was just starting to heat up throughout the past week of training camp moving into the first preseason game. Troy Fautanu had received his first full day of work as the first-team right tackle on Tuesday and has been increasing his amount of first-team reps in general.
Now he has reportedly suffered a minor MCL injury. It is not major, which is great, but you can’t win a competition from the training room. Does his injury seal the deal on the Week 1 tackle configuration with Dan Moore Jr. retaining his job on the left and Broderick Jones on the right?
Jeremy Fowler didn’t report specifics other than calling it a “minor MCL sprain.” Chances are good that minor would be referring to a Grade 1 sprain. Dr. Melanie Friedlander has laid this out a number of times on the site before, but a grade 1 sprain is described as “slight stretching and some damage to the fibers of the ligament.” That typically means one or two weeks of rest before a full return to football activities, but there are examples of players that have not missed a single game with a grade 1 MCL sprain.
Given that it is training camp and the team can afford to play it safe with his recovery, he will likely sit out practice this week. It might even be surprising to see him suit up for the second preseason game next week against the Buffalo Bills.
It would be one thing if he had a stellar performance during the first preseason game. But he struggled at times, and most notably on one of the two sacks that Justin Fields took. Here is a clip of that play below as Danielle Hunter beat him around the edge.
Fautanu played 25 total snaps at right tackle and allowed two pressures including the sack. Pro Football Focus gave him a 63.7 overall grade with a 66.3 run-block grade and a 53.9 pass-block grade. He did show some flashes, particularly in the run game. They had him pull to the right on a Najee Harris toss play and he created some serious displacement with his block out in space.
He does need to watch his hand placement so he doesn’t get called for hands to the face. That could have easily been a 10-yard penalty. Had he locked into the chestplate instead of the facemask he could have finished this block with a pancake. His college tape is littered with similar plays, so we will see much more of this in his career.
His play was a little up-and-down. That is perfectly fine for a rookie in their first preseason game. But in order to win the competition, he would need to prove he is a better Week 1 option at right tackle than Dan Moore Jr. is at left tackle. This would kick Broderick Jones back over to the left where the team would ideally like him to be. This injury throws a big wrench in his chances of making that happen for Week 1.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steelers insider Gerry Dulac recently said that there is no reason to make the change for Week 1. I was pretty critical of that claim. But now I would be surprised if Fautanu is the Week 1 starter when the Steelers take on the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 8th. He should be healthy by then, but his opportunity to be the Week 1 starter is now more narrow than ever.
