Troy Fautanu’s ankle scare did more than briefly rattle the Steelers. It put a spotlight on how thin Pittsburgh has left itself at tackle after moving Broderick Jones.
Fautanu was back in full practice Friday after being limited Thursday, easing concerns after he missed Wednesday’s session with the ankle issue. The good news mattered, but the bigger lesson from the week was less comforting: the Steelers traded away the one tackle who could have helped cover for a night like that.
Pittsburgh had already explored its tackle depth by bringing in Charlie Heck and Austin Deculus on Tuesday. Neither signed.
Heck has 29 NFL starts and Deculus has six, but the Steelers haven’t tied those workouts to Fautanu’s absence, and teams do routinely adjust emergency lists. Still, the timing made the lack of margin hard to ignore.
The numbers behind the Jones deal tell the story. On Aug.
30, Pittsburgh sent Jones and a 2027 fourth-round pick to Dallas for a 2027 third-round pick and a sixth-rounder. The Steelers had already declined his fifth-year option, and he had lost his job.
From an asset-management standpoint, turning that into a jump from Round 4 to Round 3 plus an extra sixth was a smart move. But it also meant shipping out a 38-game starter who could line up on either side.
That left Pittsburgh’s tackle room in a precarious spot. After Jack Driscoll went on injured reserve, the initial 53-man roster listed only three tackles: Fautanu, Dylan Cook and first-round rookie Max Iheanachor. The emergency depth drops quickly from there, with practice-squad linemen Doug Nester and Steven Jones as the other options, and neither has played a regular-season NFL snap.
The thinness showed up immediately against Atlanta. When Fautanu left for one play, Cook shifted from right tackle to left, and Iheanachor stepped in on the right. One injury changed two positions.
That’s the part of the plan that now matters most. The right-tackle competition no longer stays confined to one side, because it has consequences on the left, too.
Iheanachor was supposed to keep developing after missing padded camp work with an injury. Instead, he may be one ankle away from having to play next to Cook rather than simply replacing him.
For now, Fautanu’s return reduced the urgency, and there’s no indication the current ankle issue is serious. But the Steelers already know what happened with his rookie year, which ended after a dislocated kneecap. With an offense built around a quarterback who turns 43 in December, left tackle is not a spot Pittsburgh can afford to improvise at for long.
Rodgers showed he can still escape pressure against Atlanta, but relying on him to keep doing that as the season goes on would be reckless. The Jones trade can still pay off in the long run.
Pittsburgh picked up useful 2027 draft capital by taking on more risk up front. But the one Wednesday practice report made the risk plain: the Steelers have very little room for error at tackle.
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For the Steelers secondary, the challenge becomes less about tracking one featured target and more about adjusting to a receiver rotation that can shift from snap to snap. Browns absence removes a familiar centerpiece, but it also leaves Pittsburgh preparing for a more varied New England attack, which can be its own kind of test for a defensive backfield. [Read more 🡒]