Steelers Now
UNITY TWP., Pa. — It’s been a while since Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Troy Fautanu strapped on his shoulder pads.
Fautanu suffered a season-ending knee injury last September, and while he’s been cleared for action for a while now, Wednesday was the first day back in pads since the injury that wrecked his rookie season.
As a nice, easy transition back into padded football, head coach Mike Tomlin had a nice welcome back gift for the second-year Washington product: solo reps against T.J. Watt.
On the first day of pads, the Steelers did most of their familiar padded-practice drills, including team run periods and sprinted one-on-sessions of backs on backers and offensive lineman vs. defensive linemen.
In the latter drill, Fautanu led things off, taking the first two reps against Watt.
“You really don’t know what to expect,” he said. “For me, I’ve just got to make sure that I’m taking the correct set and not beating myself because he’s going to take anything you give him.I’m going to continue to get better. Obviously, going against a guy like him is going to help me out. I’m looking for reps like that.Good on good. So, shout out to him. I’m super excited to continue to get better.”
Fautanu may have deflected the credit, but he got solid wins in each of those reps.
“I thought he represented himself well today,” head coach Mike Tomlin said. “He really gets an opportunity to improve and improve fast because of who he gets to work against every day.”
Fautanu said the knee injury is physically behind him — he wore just a small protective sleeve over it on Wednesday — but he needs to get back to mentally trusting that leg to anchor his movements after being so careful with it over the last year.
“Just trusting my anchor, I guess,” he said. “Knowing that I have the anchor to sit on bull (rushes). Not just lunging and doing stuff like that.”
If that’s all Fautanu has to nit-pick about, after stonewalling the most dangerous pass rusher in the league, he’s going to do just fine this season.
The day was not as kind to Steelers rookie running back Kaleb Johnson, whose first day in pads were largely forgetful. Johnson was stopped short at the goal line in seven shots, had a tough go of things in backs on backers and even had a rare fumble during a team run period.
In backs on backers, Johnson drew Malik Harrison as a very tough assignment, and the big No. 50 bowled him over for two of the three reps. The second one, Johnson was able to stand his ground somewhat, but could have been flagged for holding. Later, he got a shot at redemption against fellow rookie Carson Bruener, and lost that rep, too.
The drill is not supposed to be fair, with the situation heavily tilted to the defense. But the standard set by Jaylen Warren in that area...
