Effectively taking redshirt rookie seasons won’t lower the bar for OT Troy Fautanu and WR Roman Wilson. Despite injuries limiting each to one game in 2024, Mike Tomlin expects both to hit the ground running and become key contributors in 2025. In a one-on-one interview with Steelers.com’s Max Starks, Tomlin outlined the standard for both men this season.
“It might be seemingly unfair, but such is life man,” Tomlin told Starks. “I expect significant growth from them and jumps from them. Because their levels of participation [not]withstanding, they’ve been a part of our culture. They’ve been in the building, they’ve been in meetings. They understand what’s expected of them and just have gone through the cycle that everyone else has gone through other than playing.”
Fautanu, the team’s first-round pick and prospect the Steelers were elated to have fall to them at No. 20, was plagued by injuries from his first game. After a promising training camp, he sprained his MCL in the first half of his first preseason game and missed the rest of the summer. Active but not taking the field in Week 1, Fautanu got the start in Week 2 and played most of the game after a planned rotation with Broderick Jones was scrapped following repeated Jones penalties. In practice ahead of Week 3, Fautanu dislocated his kneecap and missed the rest of the season.
Wilson was Diontae Johnson’s potential replacement, a third-round pick after Pittsburgh used the top of the draft to beef up its offensive line. But he went down with an ankle injury during the first padded practice. Sidelined the rest of training camp and preseason, he worked his way to a Week 5 debut, logging five snaps, before a hamstring injury derailed the rest of his rookie season.
Speed bumps for both players but Tomlin cited examples of Steelers who overcame similar circumstances.
“Calvin Austin [III] is a guy that’s continually ascending for us that played very little as a rookie due to injury. David DeCastro is a guy that recently retired not too many years ago who missed a significant amount of time because of injury his rookie year. And it certainly didn’t define or shape his career,” Tomlin said.
Austin didn’t play a regular-season down in 2022 due to a recurring foot injury first suffered in training camp and aggravated while attempting to return midseason. Last year, he became a playmaker for the offense, finishing third in receiving yards and second in touchdown receptions.
Like Fautanu, DeCastro dislocated his kneecap during his rookie year. He managed to return late in his first season but remained healthy from his sophomore year forward, becoming one of the top guards of his era.
Compared to others in their rookie class, Fautanu and Wilson are behind. But the mental reps they took all last season makes them more than rookies entering 2025. And Pittsburgh will be happy to feel like it’s getting one-and-a-half rookie classes. The Steelers’ true 2025 draftees and the 2024 members who hardly participated in Fautanu and Wilson along with DL Logan Lee and – if cleared – S Ryan Watts.
