Heading into the 2025 preseason, Pittsburgh Steelers fans didn't have much reason to be confident in the team's first-round offensive tackles. Broderick Jones, the 14th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, struggled in his first two seasons, while Troy Fautanu missed all but one game with a season-ending knee injury as a rookie in 2024.
But these two unproven tackles just gave fans a vote of confidence.
During the Steelers' preseason opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the starting offensive line saw the field for just 14 snaps. But despite this small sample, the impressive play can't go unnoticed. Jones and Fautanu had particularly intriguing performances.
The two young offensive tackles were tasked with shutting down high-profile edge rushers Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker—two former top-seven picks entering the league. That's exactly what Jones and Fautanu did. On a combined 13 pass rush snaps, neither Steelers' offensive tackle allowed a single pressure.
But their performance was better than most are giving it credit for. Though neither Jones nor Fautanu earned a particularly high PFF grade from their showing against the Jaguars, they helped create some massive pockets for quarterback Mason Rudolph to operate from. This aided Rudolph in completing nine of 10 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown (a passer rating of 135.0).
The Pittsburgh Steelers are finally seeing promise in their first-round offensive tackles
When a team invests back-to-back first-round picks in the offensive tackle position, they expect to see results. But up until the preseason opener, fans were hitting the panic button. There were reports that Broderick Jones was struggling early in his third training camp after moving back to left tackle, while the jury was still out on Troy Fautanu.
While we can't guarantee that these impressive performances will continue, we're hopeful that they are a sign of things to come. We know Jones was one of the rawest players in the 2023 NFL Draft and that he would take some time to develop.
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Against Jacksonville in Week 1 of the preseason, Jones and Fautanu showed the foot quickness and mirroring ability that helped each of them get drafted in the first round.
But that was only the first test, and there are more to come.
Now it's about stacking quality performances. The Pittsburgh Steelers take the field for their lone home playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday, August 16. If Jones and Fautanu can put together another strong performance, the confidence level from fans will shoot through the roof.
Jones was looking like a potential bust in the first half of his 2024 season, and we didn't know how Fautanu would look after the knee injury. Suddenly, we have a reason to trust these high-profile draft investments.