Troy Fautanu made his first NFL preseason appearance on Friday, playing 25 snaps as right tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s no need to overreact, as it was his first time against real NFL competition, but it wasn’t a particularly good debut. I watched Fautanu a lot before the draft and filled out his scouting report for the site, and some of the issues that come up in his recent video weren’t issues at the University of Washington. The level of competition and different offensive system could be a reason, but it’s important to remember that he’s playing right guard now.
He started 29 games at left tackle and none at right tackle for the Huskies. At the beginning of training camp, he admitted that it was difficult to translate his game to the right side. The tackle position relies heavily on footwork and hand position when blocking, and it’s all the opposite of what he’s used to. We’ll look at the video in more detail, but it seems to me that some of the new issues that weren’t visible on his college video are related to his initial struggles on the right side.
The Huskies have been predominantly focused on their passing game. Although he has played 29 times at left tackle, Fautanu does not have as much experience blocking runs as one might think. The Steelers will have a run-heavy offense, and Arthur Smith particularly likes to use wide zone concepts. Fautanu needs to execute reach blocks, and he performed poorly in that area on Friday.
A lot of this has to do with the placement of his hands. Ideally, he should be reaching out to defenders and twisting his body around to shield them, but the way his punches land makes that nearly impossible. Below are three clips of him trying to reach defenders. All three reps boil down to the same problem. He can only manage to reach the defender’s chest plate with one hand, and his outside arm ends up wrapped around their back.
This leaves him with no real way to move his body to shield defenders and the power he can generate is limited. He almost tackles some defenders, which if he makes a habit of doing this will be a liability.
There have at least been a few solid outings as a run blocker. He does a good job moving in space and scrambling to the second level. He is definitely an athlete at the tackle position and his ability to pull and scramble will benefit this offense.
On the first play of this clip, he couldn’t release his move cleanly and collided with Van Jefferson, but he still managed to block in time. That’s petty because the block worked, but he attempted the killer shot with his arm fully extended and allowed the defender to break away and stay on his feet. He probably could have grabbed a hold and taken the defender out of the game completely. He also hits him in the face guard, which is a foul if the refs see that.
On the second play of the clip, he did a good job of passing to the defensive tackle to widen the gap and help James Daniels. Then he got the hands of the defensive end so he couldn’t shoot into the gap. He ended up blocking three different players on that play.
Justin Fields was sacked twice. According to a stat from Pro Football Focus, Fautanu allowed two total pressures and one sack, but one could argue that he allowed three total pressures and two sacks. Below is a clip of the two sacks.
Both plays had similar issues, again related to hand position and shot timing. In both plays, Fautanu uses his inside arm to help the defender next to him.
Especially in the first game against four-time Pro Bowl EDGE Danielle Hunter, who was lined up as a wide-9 defender, Fautanu probably shouldn’t worry about the inside player going one-on-one against James Daniels. As a result, Fautanu can’t get the depth he needs on his passing plays and Hunter catches his outside arm, giving Fautanu no leverage to cut off the edge. Smart move by Hunter, but Fautanu made it too easy.
On the second play of the clip, Fautanu again tries to assist from the inside before turning his attention to the edge rusher. OL coach Pat Meyer teaches the first key contact. Fautanu lets Jerry Hughes make the first contact. At this point, his options are limited. As soon as he goes in for the shot, Hughes slaps his arms away and counters inside, hitting Justin Fields on the feet just enough to bring him down.
Part of it is simply adjusting to the size and speed of these NFL edge defenders, who are much less forgiving than most of the opponents he faced in college.
There were also a couple of pass blocking reps where his anchor fell apart and he got pushed back pretty far into the pocket. In the clip below, he let his elbows spread too far and landed his shot too far out. He gave up his chest and was put on skates. He almost got shoved right into the quarterback. His use of his hands and shot placement in college was one of his best traits. Again, translating his experience as a left tackle to the right may still be work.
On the few pass blocking drills that were successful for him, he was able to lock his elbows and grab onto the defender’s chest plate. When he was able to do that, his anchor held much better. On the last play of this clip, he first made significant contact with his outside arm and then mirrored the defender back inside to block the counter.
Given the injury Fautanu suffered – which you can read more about here – and his play in this preseason game, I was a little surprised when Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that he is expected to start in Week 1. He is still developing at right guard, but they will need to throw him in the deep end sooner rather than later. Broderick Jones and Fautanu obviously offer more potential as a tackle duo than Dan Moore Jr.
