Every headline about Pittsburgh Steelers OT Troy Fautanu gets a little bit worse. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac, Fautanu is expected to miss most if not the rest of the 2024 season due to a knee injury.
The specific nature of Fautanu’s knee injury still hasn’t been revealed but it’s a “significant” injury, Dulac tweets.
Fautanu hurt his knee during Friday’s practice. Officially listed as questionable on the team’s final injury report, the team downgraded him to out early Saturday. Pittsburgh then placed him on injured reserve this afternoon, knocking him out for at least the next four games. At this point, it’ll be a minor miracle if he’s able to return at all this year.
Should this be the end of Fautanu’s rookie season, he’ll have played a total of 79 offensive snaps across the preseason and regular season. He suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee in his NFL debut last month against the Houston Texans, missing the rest of training camp and the team’s final two exhibition games. It’s a similar rookie arc as David DeCastro, who missed most of his rookie year with an injury. He started just three games in 2012 before fully recovering for 2013.
With Fautanu out of the lineup, Broderick Jones is again the Steelers’ right tackle for tomorrow’s home opener and likely the rest of the season. Pittsburgh still has an open roster spot left by Fautanu being moved to injured reserve. They elevated OL John Leglue to the Active/Inactive roster but he’ll revert to the practice squad following Sunday’s game. Pittsburgh could then sign him to the 53 or add someone else this upcoming week.
The Steelers’ offensive line has been hit hard by injuries after being clean the past two years. Starting LG Isaac Seumalo will miss his third game with a pectoral injury while C Nate Herbig was lost during the final hour of training camp due to a torn rotator cuff. OT Broderick Jones has played through an arm/elbow injury while backup OT Dylan Cook remains on IR due to a foot injury suffered in August.
