The Pittsburgh Steelers placed rookie right tackle Troy Fautanu on injured reserve on Saturday, which means he’ll miss at least the next four games of the 2024 campaign. However, it appears Fautanu will be out much longer than that.
According to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fautanu is expected to miss most, if not the rest of the 2024 season due to his “significant” knee injury. Dulac did not reveal the exact injury Fautanu is dealing with.
Fautanu suffered the injury during practice this week. He also had a knee issue prior to the regular season that forced him to miss the team’s last two preseason games and derailed his hopes of starting the season-opener.
The 2024 first-round pick was slated to get the start at right tackle this week after he initially rotated with Broderick Jones in Week 2 before the 2023 first-round pick got himself benched following a penalty-plagued drive.
Steelers have placed rookie RT Troy Fautanu on IR with a significant knee injury and the news is not good: He is expected to miss most if not all of the 2024 season, per sources.
— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) September 21, 2024
This obviously puts Jones back in the starting spot. Head coach Mike Tomlin said earlier this week he was all for giving the 23-year-old another opportunity.
“I’m going to give Broderick an opportunity to rebound,” Tomlin said, per Dale Lolley of Steelers.com. “He’s a talented young player. I am sure he suffered some disappointment in terms of Troy starting. It’s a natural thing. But he has to move past it and I have to give him an opportunity to move past it as a leader. We’ll get into this week. We’ll let participation be our guide and the quality of participation for both guys be our guide in terms of how we divvy up this week. It’s a new week.”
“S—, I played bad,” Jones said of his Week 2 showing, per Chris Adamski of TribLive.com. “That’s all it is at the end of the day. You f— up, you get pulled. That’s all it is. I’ve just got to be better. Continue to grow as a player and as a man, and take the good with the bad.”
The Steelers will look to stay undefeated when they welcome the Los Angeles Chargers to Acrisure Stadium in Week 3.
