First-round rookie OT Troy Fautanu was injured during Friday’s preseason opener against the Houston Texans. He played throughout the first half but failed to finish the game. It wasn’t until after Mike Tomlin’s press conference that he noticed Fautanu had a knee injury and passed that information along to the media. Tomlin has not addressed reporters since finding out about the injury, so we should get a further update today after practice.
According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac on X, Troy Fautanu is expected to miss two weeks with the knee injury.
Jeremy Fowler reported shortly after that it was a minor MCL sprain. The two-week timetable provided by Dulac aligns with that report. With that timetable and the report of a mild MCL sprain, it is likely a grade 1 MCL sprain. To read more about this type of injury, you can check out Dr. Melanie Friedlander’s post about a similar injury in the past.
This will almost certainly sideline Fautanu for the Steelers’ next preseason game on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills. The third and final preseason game is on Aug. 24, which would be a little over two weeks from the injury. Fautanu has an outside chance of playing in that final preseason game, but they might opt to hold him out to play it safe.
Without being able to compete at practice and in the preseason games, Fautanu will likely enter the season as the second-team right tackle. This will keep Dan Moore Jr. starting on the left side with Broderick Jones starting on the right. It isn’t great timing for the rookie, but there was a decent chance that Moore and Jones would have started in Week 1 anyways. Now he will have to wait in the wings until and injury or poor play from Moore forces a change during the season.
Update 5:23 p.m.
Mike Tomlin told reporters after practice that Fautanu is out this week, but he is hopeful for a quick return, per Ray Fittipaldo on X.
