PITTSBURGH — The Steelers positioned beginning proper deal with Troy Fautanu on injured reserve Saturday after he damage his knee in observe the day gone by.
The 2024 first-round decide was slated to make his second profession begin towards the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, however fellow deal with Broderick Jones mentioned Fautanu had “slightly tweak” in Friday’s observe and can be getting an MRI to guage the severity of the harm.
“We actually do not know what his standing goes to be,” Jones mentioned of Fautanu. “I stuffed in for him after which simply going to roll from there after he will get his MRI and stuff, and we’ll simply work out what is going on on from there.”
The IR transfer means Fautanu will miss at the very least 4 video games.
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With Fautanu sidelined, Jones, whom the Steelers traded as much as draft No. 14 in 2023, will get a chance to begin and rebound from a disappointing efficiency off the bench towards the Denver Broncos.
“It is nothing new,” Jones mentioned of stepping in. “It ain’t nothing mystical, so I simply bought to get out of there and do it every time my identify’s referred to as.”
Fautanu supplanted Jones because the starter towards Denver, however coach Mike Tomlin mentioned he had deliberate to rotate tackles till a slew of penalties by Jones despatched him to the bench for the remainder of the sport.
“I had intentions of using each guys,” Tomlin mentioned Tuesday. “I acknowledged that Troy was wholesome. I acknowledged that Troy was succesful. That is why we began him, however I rolled him as a result of I had considerations about his degree of conditioning. He is a younger man. He is new to me. He is new to the NFL. I did not know the way fatigue would have an effect on his play by way of element, and so he tried to keep off a few of that. And so I had each intention to utilizing Broderick, however when Broderick began getting extremely penalized in play, I backed off of it and I held my breath and I performed Troy.”
Fautanu’s harm is the third important one on the offensive line. Heart Nate Herbig is out for the 12 months with a rotator cuff tear, whereas veteran guard Isaac Seumalo missed the primary two weeks after injuring his pectoral in observe. He’s additionally out for Sunday’s sport towards the Chargers.
Fautanu initially suffered an MCL sprain within the first half of the Steelers’ opening preseason sport in August, sidelining him for the rest of the preseason. Nonetheless, Tomlin was complimentary of the work he noticed from the twentieth total decide, citing it as he defined why Fautanu was prepared to begin previous to Friday’s harm.
“Troy had been lighting it up,” Tomlin mentioned Tuesday. “I do not discuss rather a lot throughout the preseason, notably about rookies as a result of it would not assist me and it would not assist them, however primarily based on my actions by way of placing him within the lineup, I am positive you might have an understanding of what I used to be in crew growth.”
