{"id":1005870,"date":"2026-09-20T11:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1005870\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T11:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T11:45:18","slug":"fowler-troy-fautanu-expected-to-play-against-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1005870\/","title":{"rendered":"Fowler: Troy Fautanu Expected To Play Against Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pittsburgh Steelers OT Troy Fautanu has been dealing with an ankle injury since last Sunday\u2019s game and finished the week <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/09\/steelers-week-2-friday-injury-report-porter-ruled-out-two-others-questionable\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">officially listed as questionable<\/a> for today\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JFowlerESPN\/status\/2101614732109119819\" rel=\"nofollow\">ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler<\/a>, he is expected to play.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Steelers left tackle Troy Fautanu (questionable, ankle) is expected to play Sunday vs New England, per source.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JFowlerESPN\/status\/2101614732109119819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">September 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fautanu missed one snap last Sunday, leading to Max Iheanachor\u2019s brief debut. That injury lingered into the week with Fautanu failing to practice Wednesday. He returned in a limited capacity for the final two practices of the week.<\/p>\n<p>With Fautanu playing, it\u2019s unlikely Max Iheanachor will make his starting debut, though Mike McCarthy said it was a big week for him as he got additional reps with the first-team offense. There\u2019s still an outside shot he could supplant Dylan Cook at right tackle after getting those additional reps. Cook has struggled both in the preseason and Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons.<\/p>\n<p>When Fautanu was briefly out, Iheanachor came in at right tackle with Cook flipping over to the left. The Steelers\u2019 O-line did not play up to expectations, which are sky-high given all the recent draft capital investments in the unit. Left guard Mason McCormick vowed they will be better.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s only a matter of time before Iheanachor starts. Opportunities to get first-team reps in practice will only accelerate that process.<\/p>\n<p>Fautanu is still figuring things out on the left side of the offensive line after an offseason switch, but he\u2019s among the most talented players on the roster when he plays up to his potential. He had a very strong season at right tackle a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots may find themselves without starting EDGE Dre\u2019Mont Jones, who was listed as questionable with a foot injury. If he\u2019s unable to play, Gabe Jacas and Quintayvious Hutchins would see extra playing time. Jones and Jacas each earned one sack last week in the Patriots\u2019 13-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers OT Troy Fautanu has been dealing with an ankle injury since last Sunday\u2019s game and finished&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1005871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6388,54564,6,520,57,2360,426,12356],"class_list":["post-1005870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-football","tag-jeremy-fowler","tag-max-iheanachor","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers","tag-troy-fautanu"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117303202499928077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}