Troy Fautanu saw his first action in an NFL preseason game on Friday and played 25 snaps at right tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers. There is no need to overreact with it being his first time against live NFL competition, but it wasn’t a particularly good debut. I watched a lot of Fautanu prior to the draft and completed his scouting report for the site, and some of the issues that are popping up in his current tape were not issues at the University of Washington. The level of competition and the different offensive system could be one reason, but keep in mind that he is playing on the right side now.
He started 29 games at left tackle and none at right tackle for the Huskies. He admitted at the start of training camp that it’s been difficult translating his game over to the right side. So much of the tackle position is footwork and hand placement when engaging in a block, and everything is opposite what he is used to. We will dive into the tape for a closer look, but it seems to me like some of the new issues that weren’t present on his college tape are related to his growing pains of life on the right side.
The Huskies were overwhelmingly slanted towards their passing game. Despite his 29 starts at left tackle, Fautanu doesn’t have as much run-blocking experience as you would think. The Steelers will be a run-heavy offense, and Arthur Smith particularly likes using wide zone concepts. Fautanu is going to have to execute reach blocks, and he had a rough showing in that area on Friday.
A lot of it has to do with his hand placement. He should ideally be reaching and swiveling his body around to seal off the defenders, but the way his punches land make that nearly impossible. Below are three clips of him attempting to reach defenders. All three reps boil down to the same issue. He is only able to get one hand to the defender’s chest plate and his outside arm ends up wrapped around the back.
This leaves him with no real way to get his body around to seal off the defenders and limits the amount of power he can generate. He borderline tackles a couple of the defenders which will get flagged if he makes it a habit.
There were at least a few solid reps as a run blocker. He does a nice job moving around in space and climbing to the second level. He is definitely an athlete at the tackle position and his ability to pull and climb will come in handy for this offense.
On the first play of this clip, he didn’t get a clean release on his pull and bumped into Van Jefferson, but he still got out to make the block on time. This is nitpicking because the block worked, but he went for the kill shot with full arm extension and allowed the defender to disengage and keep his feet. He probably could have latched on and completely taken the defender out of the play. He also hits him in the facemask which is a penalty if seen by the refs.
On the second play of the clip, he did a nice job to chip the defensive tackle to widen the hole and help out James Daniels, then gets hands on the defensive end so he couldn’t shoot the gap. He ended up blocking three different players on this play.
Justin Fields was sacked twice. Based on charting from Pro Football Focus, Fautanu allowed two total pressures and one sack, but you could argue he allowed three total pressures and two sacks. Below is a clip of the two sacks.
Both plays had similar issues, once again related to hand placement and punch timing. On both plays, Fautanu uses his inside arm to help the guard next to him.
Especially on the first play against four-time Pro Bowl EDGE Danielle Hunter, who was aligned as a wide-9 defender, Fautanu probably shouldn’t be worrying about the inside guy who is one-on-one against James Daniels. Fautanu isn’t able to get proper depth in his pass set as a result, and Hunter catches his outside arm which gives Fautanu zero leverage to cut off the edge. Savvy move by Hunter, but Fautanu made it too easy.
On the second play of the clip, Fautanu once again tries to give inside help before turning his attention to the edge rusher. OL Coach Pat Meyer teaches first significant contact. Fautanu let’s Jerry Hughes make first contact. At that point, his options are limited. As soon as he goes for his punch, Hughes swipes away his arms and counters inside. He got just enough of Justin Fields’ feet to take him down.
Some of this is also just adjusting to the size and speed of these NFL edge defenders. They are much less forgiving than most of the opponents he would have faced in college.
There were also a couple reps pass blocking where his anchor fell apart and he got pushed back into the pocket pretty far. In the below clip, he let his elbows get too wide and landed his punch too far outside. He gave up his chest and got put on skates. He almost got pushed right into the quarterback. His use of hands and punch placement in college was one of his best traits. Again, maybe still a work in progress on translating his left tackle experience to the right.
The few pass blocking reps that were successful for him, he was able to keep his elbows tight and latch onto the chest plate of the defender. When he was able to do that, his anchor held up much better. On the final play of this clip, he made first significant contact with his outside arm and then mirrored the defender back inside to cut off the counter.
Given the injury that Fautanu sustained — which you can read more about here — and his play in this preseason game, I was a bit surprised when Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac reported that the plan is for him to start Week 1. He is still a work in progress on the right side, but they will have to throw him in the deep end sooner rather than later. Broderick Jones and Fautanu obviously present more upside as a tackle tandem than Dan Moore Jr.
