The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Denver Broncos on the road to advance to 2-0. Their Week 2 game featured the most rookies yet, with Troy Fautanu entering the starting lineup in place of Broderick Jones at right tackle. That gives us a little more to look at in this week’s rookie report.
As always, I will take a look at the rookies who played in the previous weeks game, include some clips from their tape, and analyze what they are doing well and what they could improve on. This week, we will be covering the Broncos game.
Week 2 – At Broncos
OT Troy Fautanu
Snaps: 55 on offense
PFF Grades: 64.4 overall, 69.3 pass block, 59.3 run block
This was Fautanu’s NFL debut in the regular season, and he held up really well. Everything that Broderick Jones has been doing wrong at right tackle, Fautanu was doing right. Mainly, that involves use of hands with punch timing and punch placement to help slow down and neutralize pass rushers.
Fautanu’s hands were very active. You can look at the full film room breakdown I posted earlier in the week, but this block in particular was one of my favorites. He initially got beat, but he managed to use his feet to give up a little ground while he reset his hands before finally anchoring. Not every play is going to go perfectly, so the ability to recover is really encouraging.
There is still room for improvement. There was a rep or two where he failed to make the first significant contact and tried to absorb a bull rush. He gave up too much ground on the below play and forced Justin Fields to abandon the passing play for a scramble. Had he been winding up for a pass, this could have been a strip-sack opportunity for Jonathon Cooper.
C Zach Frazier
Snaps: 66 on offense
PFF Grades: 55.9 overall, 35.4 pass block, 59.8 run block
I talked about it a lot last week, but Frazier just finds ways to get defenders on the ground. It wasn’t as frequent in Week 2, but he still dumped a few defenders throughout the game. The below play, Frazier borrowed a move from his wrestling career and sprawled on DT D.J. Jones to take him out of the play. That created a huge lane for Najee Harris and gave the offense some breathing room after starting deep in their own end.
PFF’s pass-block grade seemed a little harsh on my review of the tape, but there were a couple times where Frazier got pushed back into the pocket. On the below play, he gave up his chest and got caught on his heels. It was a quick pass, so it didn’t matter, but that pocket was collapsing rapidly.
ILB Payton Wilson
Snaps: 22 on defense, 20 on special teams
PFF Grades: 63.4 overall, 65.5 run defense, 29.7 tackling, 58.7 pass rush, 60.5 coverage
One of the biggest things Wilson can provide the team at this point in his career is pass coverage. His speed is a weapon in that area and allows him to match up well with tight ends or running backs out of the backfield. He didn’t cause the incompletion on this play, but his play was sound. He dropped into his zone, read the quarterback’s eyes, and then closed on the tight end. Greg Dulcich dropped the pass, but Wilson may have forced the incompletion if he didn’t. Sometimes tackling the catch is the best they can do if the offense schemes up a good play, and he did that here.
As for what he can improve on, the tackling was a bit rough in Week 2. This play is a good example. He didn’t break his feet down and came in out of control and whiffed on the tackle. He had plenty of help outside, so he needed to either break down his feet or play inside out for the tackle.
CB Beanie Bishop Jr.
Snaps: 39 on defense, 3 on special teams
PFF Grades: 41.5 overall, 60.3 run defense, 29.9 tackling, 58.4 pass rush, 39.6 coverage
Teryl Austin said before the Week 1 game that Bishop was going to need to answer the challenge when teams inevitably looked his way or else they would keep picking on him in coverage. Through two weeks, he has only been targeted eight times, with seven receptions allowed for 71 yards, per PFF. He still has room to grow in coverage, but he is mostly doing a nice job tackling the catch to limit YAC, which I highlighted in last week’s report.
My favorite play in Week 2 for Bishop was him coming downhill to tackle QB Bo Nix in the open field as he was scrambling on third and long. He was able to read Nix’s hips to see he was bouncing outside and he closed in for the tackle short of the first down. These are some of the reasons the team is trusting him to play nearly 40 snaps per game.
He did have one particularly rough play late in the game when Lil’Jordan Humphrey put him in the blender a little bit for one of the Broncos’ biggest gains of the day. It was a great effort by Humphrey more than anything, but Bishop took a little too long to recover at the top of the receiver’s route and then missed the tackle.
