There is plenty of room for concern on the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive line. The depth is lacking, so injuries could derail everything, and there isn’t a lot of experience either. There are 14 years of NFL experience across the starting five, and nine of them belong to Isaac Seumalo.
One of those years of experience is basically a non-factor, too, because it belongs to right tackle Troy Fautanu, who played in just one game during his rookie season. The 2024 first-round pick is healthy, looking to make up for lost time, and grinding away at training camp against the best pass rusher in the NFL, according to the greater population of Pittsburgh.
With Fautanu, there are a lot of unknowns for the fan base to sink their hopes into. But there’s more familiarity between the Washington product and T.J. Watt. The highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL is sharpening iron with the 25-year-old tackle who has a lot on his plate this season, blocking for 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers.
Going up against T.J. Watt is quickly speeding up Fautanu’s learning curve
Facing off with Watt every day isn’t meant to be easy. The challenge is the reward. Still, the all-time leading sack artist in franchise history is noticing some promise in Fautanu through training camp.
"He's a very quick tackle, very athletic,” Watt said, according to The Athletic's Mike DeFabo on X. “He can recover really well. I think he's just getting his confidence under him. I'm trying to give him a myriad of things, where I can bull rush him to get his confidence in that knee.”
Many reports concerning one-on-one reps and other meetings during team drills have mostly gone in favor of Watt, as is to be expected. However, more than enough are indicating that Fautanu is holding his own overall, which is about all Steelers fans can hope to hear.
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But that’s why they say iron sharpens iron. As head coach Mike Tomlin pointed out recently, Fautanu’s opportunity to improve is rooted in squaring off with Watt every day. Every tackle in the league can lose to Watt on a pass rush, but it’s those who can come back for more and find new ways to approach their blocking set against him who will be better for it.
All indications so far point to Fautanu doing just that, which puts some confidence back into the offensive line. It doesn’t cure all of the worry, especially since things on the left side have been a little rocky to start training camp.
And even still, Fautanu has to put it all into action on the field for the course of a season. Fans have heard plenty over the past 15 months about how good he is; they’d like to see it for themselves, too.