The Pittsburgh Steelers have been revamping their offensive line through the NFL Draft and a few free agent signings. It's gotten Steeler Nation optimistic and excited. General Manager Omar Khan clearly sees the big men upfront as a priority in order to get the offense overall moving in the right direction. In Khan's first two seasons as general manager, he's used two first round picks on offensive tackles Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu, a second round pick on center Zach Frazier, and signed guard Isaac Seumalo to a three-year contract in the 2023 offseason. Khan's commitment to bolstering the line could pay off in a huge way for the Steel City.
Last season, the Steelers showed improvement upfront from the 2022 season, but there were still a few weak spots. Dan Moore Jr. started almost the entire season at left tackle, where he had a pretty poor season. Mason Cole had a rough year as the team's starting center as well. The Steelers chose to keep Moore Jr. at left tackle where he was more comfortable and move their first round selection in Jones over to the right side for his rookie season. There wasn't much the team could do about Cole's lackluster play at center, except deal with it and address the position in the offseason (and they did).
Drafting Fautanu in the first round in this past draft sent a serious message that Pittsburgh isn't going to just deal with poor offensive line play anymore. Fautanu spent most of his collegiate career playing left tackle for the University of Washington, but the Steelers plan to play him at right tackle where he will compete with Moore Jr. for the starting spot.
Transitioning from one side of the line to the other isn't easy, everything is opposite and there are growing pains that come with it like we saw last season with Jones when he moved to the right side. Fautanu will have his fair share of struggles, but according to Offensive Line Coach Pat Meyer, he's progressing and learning quickly in the early stages of his switch to right tackle. Here's what Meyer had to say when he spoke to ESPN's Brooke Pryor.
"Troy's learning a lot of the different techniques very quickly."
It wasn't smooth sailing from day one though; Meyer admitted that Fautanu struggled a bit initially as he began learning his new position.
"The first couple days, his timing was off because the speed of the game is different, now we don't have 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."
Fautanu's steady improvements throughout offseason training are great to hear. By the time training camp arrives, he'll likely be more comfortable in his role and ready to compete with Moore Jr. for the starting right tackle job.
The Steelers Have A Serious Competition For The Starting Right Tackle Job
Fautanu and Moore Jr. are both new to the right side of the line. Although Moore Jr. is a veteran and Fautanu is a rookie, whoever starts the season will start in relatively unfamiliar territory. Moore Jr. struggled mightily last season at left tackle where he says he's most comfortable, so if he ends up starting the season over Fautanu, we could be seeing some of the same issues we saw last season. Fautanu has very natural strength and mobility that can help him have a long and successful career in the Steel City, it just might not begin in Week 1 of the 2024 regular season.
With James Daniels, Seumalo, Frazier, Jones and potentially Fautanu, this Pittsburgh offensive line has unlimited potential. We'll just have to wait and see how it all comes together.
