Even though he is recovering from a sprained MCL that will sideline him for two weeks, rookie offensive tackle Troy Fautanu will reportedly be the starting right tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac is reporting that the Steelers were going to start Fautanu against the Buffalo Bills and leave him at right tackle into the regular season. While his knee injury suffered against the Houston Texans has him on the shelf for two weeks, the Steelers believe he’ll be ready for the Sept. 8 opener on the road and will be in the starting lineup at right tackle.
“After three weeks of training camp and just one preseason game, they are ready to hand the starting right tackle job over to their No. 1 draft choice,” Dulac reports for the Post-Gazette. “They planned to start him in Saturday night’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills and leave him there for the start of the regular season until he injured his knee Friday night against the Houston Texans.
“That will leave Broderick Jones, last year’s No. 1 pick, to battle incumbent Dan Moore Jr. for the starting left tackle position. For now, though, Jones will remain at right tackle until Fautanu returns. Fautanu will miss the final two preseason games, but with two weeks in between until the start of the regular season, he is expected to be ready for Sept. 8 in Atlanta.
Though Fautanu is transitioning to a new position — he never played right tackle in a game at Washington — the Steelers have seemingly seen enough to put him into the starting lineup at right tackle right away, rather than slow playing him like they did with Broderick Jones just one year ago.
Jones didn’t step into the starting lineup until Week 9 against the Tennessee Titans last season and then held down the right tackle position for the final 11 games for the season, including the playoffs. With Fautanu, who brings a great deal of experience coming out of college, the Steelers plan to put him into the lineup immediately.
According to Dulac, the Steelers already believe the rookie is their second-best offensive lineman and compared the situation with Fautanu to the decision to start Maurkice Pouncey right away in 2010 due to how impressive he was in training camp and the preseason as a rookie.
Of course, Pouncey went on to have a remarkable 10-year career as an All-Pro center for the Steelers, putting together a Hall of Fame-caliber career.
Pittsburgh was very high on Fautanu when he slipped to No. 20 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, leading to the Steelers snatching him up. Though he’s moving positions, his athleticism, power and edge have stood out. He’s gotten some work in training camp with the first team and has had his moments.
He’s held up well in 1v1 pass blocking situations against big names, too, like T.J. Watt. Though he gave up a sack against the Texans to star defensive end Danielle Hunter, he had some moments as a run blocker and played through a knee injury that the team didn’t even know he had until halftime.
With Fautanu at starting right tackle, that’ll leave Jones and Moore to battle it out, though Jones will split time throughout the rest of the preseason between left and right tackle. Jones should have the leg up there, considering he was a first-round draft pick last year and the Steelers have said all offseason he would be the starting left tackle eventually.
It might be a bit difficult to unseat Moore, at least initially, considering the experience he brings to the table, but the future of the offensive line in Pittsburgh is taking shape. Fautanu at right tackle is a huge part of that. Now it’s up to Jones to do his part and grab left tackle.
