When the Pittsburgh Steelers went on the clock in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, they had options. The Steelers had invested amount of time in the offseason scouting the top offensive tackles and they had their pick of several great ones. In the end they opted for former Washington offensive tackle Troy Fautanu and didn’t look back.
The Steelers just wrapped up OTAs and now in a month will get together for training camp. ESPN was asked to evaluate how each of the NFL’s first-round picks was in offseason workouts to this point, and Steelers writer Brooke Pryor shared her evaluation as well as some insight from Steelers offensive line coach Pat Meyer.
Although he primarily played left tackle at Washington, Fautanu spent most of his time working at right during the offseason program, and he said he expects to compete at right tackle when the team reports to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for training camp next month. “Troy’s learned a lot of the different techniques very quickly,” offensive line coach Pat Meyer said. “The first couple days his timing was off because the speed of the game is different — now we don’t have any pads on yet, so nothing’s going to be determined until we get into camp — but his timing’s much better in terms of his get-off and run game and his sets and throwing his hands and being aggressive with his hands and whatnot. He’s improved tremendously from rookie minicamp to now.”
The Steelers are banking on Fautanu taking over the starting right tackle spot sooner rather than later and allowing Broderick Jones to move to the left side. With Dan Moore Jr. on the roster, it’s doubtful Pittsburgh will rush Fautanu into the starting lineup and will likely treat him similarly to how they did Jones as a rookie last season.
