The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t see first-round pick Troy Fautanu nearly as much as they had planned, at least on the field. The rookie offensive tackle only played in one game, suffering a knee injury in the days after his NFL debut. While recovering, however, he had a particular focus on how to better himself for next season.
“It’s a lot different in this league”, Fautanu observed at the end of the season, via Steelers reporter Chris Adamski. “You have to find a way to get a winning edge — and that’s taking care of your body. That’s something I have learned here these past four months”.
The Steelers prepared Troy Fautanu as a plug-and-play starter and plugged him in surprisingly so after a preseason injury. Despite missing extensive practice time, he started in Week 2. They planned to mix Broderick Jones into the rotation, but Jones’ play aborted those intentions.
So far, health has been Fautanu’s biggest obstacle, going back since before the draft. He likely lasted as long as he did precisely because teams had medical concerns about him. The Steelers also benefited from a particularly deep, top-heavy tackle class to land him at 20, to be fair.
If he has spent his down time figuring out how to stay healthier, then that’s great news. The Steelers certainly need him on the field, and he can’t have a career otherwise. Fautanu did show his talent, with some reporters suggesting he looked like their best lineman in training camp. In-game, he did show some warts that experience must iron out.
Troy Fautanu is the second tackle the Steelers drafted with their first-round pick in as many years. In 2023, they drafted Broderick Jones, whom Fautanu was set to displace. Were it not for his injury, Jones would have been on the bench. And how soon would he have emerged thereafter at left tackle, if at all?
Moving into the 2025 season, the Steelers envision Jones and Fautanu as their bookend tackles. That shouldn’t be a revelation, a team starting its most recent first-round picks, of course. Obviously, that means there is no room for Dan Moore Jr., who is a pending free agent.
Since 2023, the Steelers have shifted to a heavy focus on building the trenches. That comes partly from a change in the front office with Omar Khan and Andy Weidl. Since then, they’ve drafted four offensive and defensive linemen in the first two rounds. But they can’t stop at Fautanu, as clearly there is more work to do along the offensive line.
Absent a clear answer with a franchise quarterback, it’s obvious the Steelers’ path to success in the near future has to run through their offensive line. That includes running the ball better, and they need the offensive line to do that. With Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick, and Broderick Jones, they have a young core with high potential. But they have yet to prove that they can harness that talent and produce a cohesive, let alone dominant, unit.
