Troy Fautanu’s Solid Regular Season Debut; Now Injured in Practice on Friday
Troy Fautanu was solid in his Steelers’ debut at right tackle in the team’s win over the Denver Broncos. It was something I was excited to sing his praises about, but the excitement seems to be for naught, at least for now, as news came out earlier that he suffered “a little tweak” in today’s practice. Apparently he will get an MRI to determine the severity of this “tweak”, and he is officially listed as questionable for Sunday’s home opener against the Chargers.
We just can’t catch a break with this damn offensive line. We already lost IOL Nate Herbig for the year. Isaac Seumalo will be out for a third consecutive week with a pec injury. Broderick Jones doesn’t seem like he can generate enough power in that elbow to play to his strengths, and now we could potentially lose Fautanu to injury again in his young career. Broderick Jones finished Friday’s practice with the first team, and looks set to start against the Chargers if Fautanu can’t go. As much as that sucks, it’s worth noting that Broderick Jones played an OK game in week one in Atlanta. It was when we tried to rotate him in against the Broncos that he really struggled mightily. Still, after Fautanu’s solid debut, it sucks that we may be riding out this Broderick Jones thing for a while. Who knows what the hell our offensive line is going to look like in 5 weeks?
Anyway, in Denver we saw a lot of good things from Troy Fautanu. He was pretty alright in running plays. I think the offensive line as a whole left some things to be desired in the run game, but that’s the kind of thing that should improve as the offensive line gets more reps with each other, and has a better idea of each other's tendencies. However, if we can’t stay healthy, that’s the kind of thing that we may struggle with all year, like we did last year. We shall see. The run game will be CRUCIAL against the Chargers this week.
Pass protection is the area that I think Fautanu really excelled in last week @ Denver. I’m one of those guys that believes that “pressures” are an imaginary stat, especially when you’re dealing with a quarterback like Justin Fields who likes to hold onto the football and extend plays. Upon rewatching all of his reps on NFL Pro, I counted one occasion where he was clearly beaten on a play in the first quarter, allowing a “pressure”. Outside of that, I can’t find any other instance where he allowed a pressure or a sack.
That doesn’t mean he played a completely clean game in pass protection by any means. There were some plays where he was a bit wide with his punch, resulting in a bad rep for him. He clearly benefited, at times, from the quick passing game. When he was asked about his performance, he owned the poor use of his hands, citing that as something he feels like he needs to improve upon. Still, all things considered, he certainly looked like he belongs in that starting RT spot.
This Chargers @ Steelers game is going to be good on good football. I think the team that wins at the line of scrimmage is going to win the game, so it’s really unexceptional timing for Fautanu to be getting hurt. Here’s to hoping he can go on Sunday.
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