If the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to have any success on offense, it’s going to revolve around their two young tackles. Both Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu have loads of potential, but neither are proven in the NFL yet. This presents a problem with a 41-year old quarterback behind them.
That said, Mike Tomlin seems pleased with the progression he’s seeing from each of them.
“Man, I think they’ve gotten better every day,” Tomlin said after Tuesday’s practice, via Steelers.com. “Broderick got slowed by a little day-to-day injury there for a spell, but has really been on the uptick since his return. Same with Troy. I like the trajectory of the group, but as I mentioned, even though we’re leaving here [training camp], we are still very much in development.”
Pittsburgh’s addressed the offensive line heavily in recent drafts. That investment evidenced itself at tackle, where Jones and Fautanu were their first-round picks in 2023 and 2024. Unfortunately, the returns from those selections are minimal so far. Jones has been moving back and forth from left and right tackle, and he’s yet to cement himself as a bona fide starter in the league. Fautanu’s rookie year was unfortunate, as he suffered a season-ending knee injury after just one game.
For Broderick Jones, things started to get off to a similarly rough start in training camp. He had some rough practices to kick things off, and a soft-tissue injury kept him out of action for a little while.
That said, each of these two impressed in Saturday’s win over the Jaguars. Both were on the field for just 15 snaps, admittedly a small sample size. But in 12 pass-blocking snaps, neither allowed a single pressure. The run blocking wasn’t great from either, and Fautanu did pick up an illegal hands to the face penalty. But the run blocking problems throughout the game were omnipresent across the team. Fautanu’s penalty was even a little debatable.
For Arthur Smith’s offense to run smoothly, the run blocking has to improve. But if you’re looking for a silver lining, it’s the pass blocking from these two. Keeping Aaron Rodgers upright is paramount if Pittsburgh is to go on a deep playoff run. Although it wasn’t Rodgers in the backfield Saturday, these two kept their quarterback clean when on the field. The Jaguars played some starters too, so it wasn’t like that performance was against backups.
There will be some bumps in the road with these two. Broderick Jones will need time to settle into hopefully his permanent position. And Fautanu has just one NFL game under his belt, so he’ll have his own struggles that he couldn’t work out during his rookie season. Yet, they’re each making solid progress, and it showed on Saturday.
