Troy Fautanu received word before today’s practice that he would be running with the first-team offense and then proceeded to play first-team right tackle for most of Tuesday’s practice. He had received some opportunities with the ones previously, but this was the first full day of that setup.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had been bringing him along slowly as they do with most rookies, but they didn’t draft him in the first round to have him sit on the bench. Chances are good that he will start Week 1 or soon thereafter.
But that comes with certain expectations and the weight of being a first-round pick for the Steelers. It doesn’t sound like Fautanu needs that external motivation, however. He has plenty of expectations that he is placing on himself.
“I don’t think there is such a thing as perfection in football. You constantly strive for it knowing that you’re never gonna achieve that. But that’s the thing, is that I expect that for myself,” Fautanu said in a clip posted by YardBarker’s Aaron Becker on X. “Regardless [of] who I’m going against…I want to win every single rep. That’s what was ingrained in me in college and high school is making sure that you approach ever single rep wanting to win it.”
Compared to first-round OT Broderick Jones a year ago, Fautanu enters the NFL with a lot more college experience. Jones had just 19 college starts to Fautanu’s 31. He was much more of a ready-made prospect coming out with more refined technique, though almost all of his experience was at left tackle. He has detailed the difficulty of switching sides to the right, but Jones has been helping him with that since he made the same switch last season.
There have been flashes of good play from the rookie, winning two of his three reps against T.J. Watt during practice over the weekend, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo in his weekly Steelers fan chat.
Fautanu has no shortage of confidence in himself.
“Just making sure that I’m refining any part of my game. At the end of the day, you gotta have confidence where you wanna be the best in the game,” Fautanu said in a separate clip posted by YardBarker’s Becker on X. “That’s my goal, but it’s mini steps. And I know that it’s mini steps.”
Troy Fautanu’s emergence as a top-flight offensive tackle would be a huge turning point for the Steelers’ offense. They have struggled over the last three or four seasons for a variety of reasons, but the offensive line has been at the top of that list. Along with Jones, Zach Frazier, and Mason McCormick, the Steelers could be soon be reaching a golden era of offensive line play.
