There are a number of notable training camp competitions for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. The quarterback battle is the most talked about, but the offensive line is just as important for the success of this year’s team. After drafting OT Troy Fautanu and C Zach Frazier with their first two picks of the 2024 NFL Draft, the competition has been slowly developing. Frazier has mostly worked with the second team behind Nate Herbig, and Fautanu has been getting sparse first-team reps, working mostly behind Broderick Jones with Dan Moore Jr. on the left side.
Today’s practice, the eleventh of training camp, showed signs of the tackle competition heating up. Fautanu worked primarily with the first-team offense as the right tackle all day, with Jones and Moore rotating primarily on the left, according to Alex Kozora on X.
This is a significant moment in the competition. In the end, Fautanu needs to prove he is a better right tackle than Moore is a left tackle for the change to be made. Omar Khan has stated and restated that the plan is for Jones to be on the left side in the long run. The first preseason game is this Friday against the Houston Texans. They plan on playing their starters since this is their second preseason game. That would be a great opportunity to gauge Fautanu’s progress against top competition, with the Texans having a formidable tandem of edge rushers.
The rotation between Jones and Moore on the left is a little more puzzling. If Fautanu is on the right, Jones should be on the left, but the Steelers often show deference to veterans in these competitions. Jones didn’t earn the full-time starting role at right tackle until Week 9 last season, for example. Fautanu enters the NFL with much more college experience than Jones did, however. That is one of the big reasons many think Fautanu could enter the season as the Week 1 starter at right tackle.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo noted today in his weekly fan chat that Troy Fautanu had a strong showing against T.J. Watt the other day in practice.
“It’s not a game, but Fautanu won two of three against him,” Fittipaldo wrote.
That is obviously a small sample size, but perhaps his strong performance against Watt earned him extra first-team reps to start the third week of training camp. If things continue trending this way, we could have much more clarity on the tackle competition by the end of this week, when the first preseason game is in the books.
