The Pittsburgh Steelres landed a great value pick in Troy Fautanu on the first night of the NFL Draft to help solidify their offensive line. The team considers him a tackle and will likely play over Dan Moore Jr. That means that Pittsburgh should have the type of group that can impose their will and run Arthur Smith’s scheme at a high level.
An athletic freak, Fautanu played most of his career at Washington at left tackle, except for a few games when he kicked inside to left guard due to injuries. For the Steelers, their mentality up front is creating a dominant run game that will allow them to buoy a limited passing attack. But in order to do that in Arthur Smith’s wide zone scheme, they need athletic players who can move in space, and nastiness from those up front. And Fautanu sees only one way that a player can work on the offensive line — nastiness.
“There’s only one way you’ve got to play o-line, man,” Fautanu said. “And that’s just nasty. I feel like every Saturday or just every day you practice being violent with your hands and just trying to be explosive off the ball and just trying to, you know, put your will and the other guy. You’ve got to dominate. You’ve got to finish guys.”
Take him at his word. While he called moving him off tackle to guard or center lazy analysis, he would be willing to do it if a team asked him to. Versatile, athletic, and nasty would be the way to describe Fautanu.
Here’s the entire press conference from Tomlin and Khan breaking down the selection of Troy Fautanu.
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