He played just 55 snaps last season before missing almost all of his rookie season with a knee injury, but ahead of Year 2 in the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers right tackle Troy Fautanu is generating quite a bit of buzz.<\/p>\n
After being believed to be the best offensive lineman last summer<\/a> in training camp and having plenty of hype entering his rookie season, things came crashing down quickly. Fautanu injured his knee in his preseason debut against the Houston Texans and then missed just over a month, returning in Week 2 to make his first NFL start against the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n Fautanu was quite good in his debut, but the following week in practice, Fautanu injured his knee again, putting him on the shelf for the season.<\/a> He\u2019s largely an unknown at this point entering Year 2, but that hasn\u2019t stopped plenty of Steelers reporters from speaking highly of the former first-round pick.<\/p>\n That includes 93.7 The Fan Steelers reporter Jeff Hathhorn. During an appearance on The Fan\u2019s Morning Show Thursday, Hathhorn said Fautanu has the potential to be a great NFL offensive lineman.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see his footwork, we saw it a little bit in the preseason and a very little bit in a game. The guy, he can get to the second level, like most tackles can\u2019t. His ability to go laterally, go up the field, it really is impressive,\u201d Hathhorn said of Fautanu when asked if he\u2019s the best offensive lineman the Steelers have, according to audio via 93.7 The Fan.<\/a> \u201cI do think he\u2019s the best tackle, maybe the best of the guards, but man, Zach Frazier\u2019s pretty special. I don\u2019t know if I would go as far as saying that he\u2019s better than Frazier, but man, they do love his potential when you watch him in those scenarios.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, it\u2019s about doing it consistently against the best in the league and, and how you hold up against that kind of physical test. But man, when you watch him in space, especially in OTAs, minicamp and things like that, the guy just wows you.\u201d<\/p>\n That certainly has to be music to the ears of Steelers fans.<\/p>\n After the Steelers selected Fautanu No. 20 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, expectations were sky-high for the Washington product. He was expected to be a linchpin for the Steelers\u2019 offensive line as it accelerated its rebuild with him in the first round, followed by Frazier in the second round and Mason McCormick in the fourth round.<\/p>\n Though the initial knee injury was a tough blow for the Steelers, Fautanu was able to return for Week 2 and looked quite good against the Broncos. In 55 snaps, Fautanu was named Pro Football Focus\u2019 Player of the Game<\/a> in the 13-6 in over the Broncos. That day, Fautanu graded out at a 64.4 overall, including a 69.3 pass-blocking grade, allowing just two pressures.<\/p>\n Things were really looking up after that game, so when he was lost for the season, it was a massive blow. He\u2019s healthy now and is drawing the praise of his teammates for how he\u2019s looked<\/a> this offseason. With Broderick Jones flipping over to the left side, Fautanu is sliding back into the starting role at right tackle under offensive line coach Pat Meyer. He has quite a bit to prove in Year 2.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Hopefully he\u2019s able to stay healthy and help the rest of the offensive line keep Aaron Rodgers upright at QB, while opening up rushing lanes for the three-headed backfield in rookie Kaleb Johnson, Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. It would be great to see Fautanu wow people on the field in real games, rather than just offseason workouts for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He played just 55 snaps last season before missing almost all of his rookie season with a knee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[8740,7,36514,6,520,57,2360,426,691,12356,1481],"class_list":{"0":"post-162061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-93-7-the-fan","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jeff-hathhorn","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-trending","17":"tag-troy-fautanu","18":"tag-weekly"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114754227580891335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162061","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=162061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}