Pittsburgh Steelers Exit Meeting: OT Troy Fautanu
Experience: 1 Year
I certainly wish there were more to write about Steelers first-round pick Troy Fautanu, at least on the field. The rookie participated in just one game, subsequently suffering a season-ending injury. Going into his second season, the Steelers are already counting on him being a difference-making player—which is what they drafted him to be in the first place.
Wishing to bolster their trenches, the Steelers took aim at the tackle position with Fautanu in the first round. This was a double dip after they drafted Broderick Jones a year earlier, their eyes set on a long-term duo. While Fautanu played left tackle in college, they moved him to right tackle.
But with Fautanu dealing with a knee injury in training camp, the Steelers were never able to execute their plan. The goal was to move Jones to left tackle, but Fautanu’s unavailability made that impossible. Yet they liked the rookie so much that they still didn’t hesitate to play him.
Even with a truncated offseason, Troy Fautanu made his Steelers starting debut in Week 2. He dressed a week earlier, but only as an emergency option. And he played nearly the whole game, the plan being to rotate in Jones. Jones’ struggles set that plan awry, and the rest should have been history.
The only problem is Fautanu injured his knee in the following week of practice, and the Steelers lost him for the rest of the season to a dislocated kneecap. There was initial hope that he could return for the postseason, but that proved overly optimistic.
Unlike James Daniels, Troy Fautanu stayed around the Steelers amid injury throughout the season. He rehabbed here and tried to remain engaged as much as possible, despite his playing odds being very slim. Of course, being a rookie, it also behooved him to be around the team as much as possible, despite the injury.
Given that he already entered the starting lineup as a rookie, that should be the default moving forward. Broderick Jones should start at left tackle, and Troy Fautanu at right tackle for the Steelers in 2025 and beyond. Dan Moore Jr. is a pending unrestricted free agent, and the Steelers have no plans to re-sign him.
Accordingly, the jury very much remains out on the Steelers’ selection of Fautanu. He showed his talent in brief glimpses on the field, but he also made mistakes. Experience should iron that out, but until we see better, it’s all just speculation.
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves at home, the inevitable result of another early playoff exit. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, with no clear end in sight. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we will go down the roster conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? We’ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.
