PITTSBURGH — The Steelers placed starting right tackle Troy Fautanu on injured reserve Saturday after he hurt his knee in practice the previous day.
The 2024 first-round pick was slated to make his second career start against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, but fellow tackle Broderick Jones said Fautanu had “a little tweak” in Friday’s practice and would be getting an MRI to evaluate the severity of the injury.
“We really don’t know what his status is going to be,” Jones said of Fautanu. “I filled in for him and then just going to roll from there after he gets his MRI and stuff, and we’ll just figure out what’s going on from there.”
The IR move means Fautanu will miss at least four games.
With Fautanu sidelined, Jones, whom the Steelers traded up to draft No. 14 in 2023, will get an opportunity to start and rebound from a disappointing performance off the bench against the Denver Broncos.
“It’s nothing new,” Jones said of stepping in. “It ain’t nothing mystical, so I just got to get out of there and do it whenever my name’s called.”
Fautanu supplanted Jones as the starter against Denver, but coach Mike Tomlin said he had planned to rotate tackles until a slew of penalties by Jones sent him to the bench for the rest of the game.
“I had intentions of utilizing both guys,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “I acknowledged that Troy was healthy. I acknowledged that Troy was capable. That’s why we started him, but I rolled him because I had concerns about his level of conditioning. He’s a young guy. He’s new to me. He’s new to the NFL. I didn’t know how fatigue would affect his play in terms of detail, and so he tried to ward off some of that. And so I had every intention to using Broderick, but when Broderick started getting highly penalized in play, I backed off of it and I held my breath and I played Troy.”
Fautanu’s injury is the third significant one on the offensive line. Center Nate Herbig is out for the year with a rotator cuff tear, while veteran guard Isaac Seumalo missed the first two weeks after injuring his pectoral in practice. He is also out for Sunday’s game against the Chargers.
Fautanu initially suffered an MCL sprain in the first half of the Steelers’ opening preseason game in August, sidelining him for the remainder of the preseason. Still, Tomlin was complimentary of the work he saw from the 20th overall pick, citing it as he explained why Fautanu was ready to start prior to Friday’s injury.
“Troy had been lighting it up,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “I don’t talk a lot during the preseason, particularly about rookies because it doesn’t help me and it doesn’t help them, but based on my actions in terms of putting him in the lineup, I’m sure you have an understanding of what I was looking at in team development.”
