PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s the first day of Steelers voluntary workouts. Let’s start with that statement, but only center Zach Frazier remained in the same spot on the offensive line as the team took the field with most of its regulars at the UPMC Rooney complete.
The offensive line was inverted from what we saw occasionally last year. Troy Fautanu moved over to left tackle and Mason McCormick moved to left guard with Frazier in the middle. On the right side, four-year veteran Spencer Anderson at guard and the starting left tackle at the end of the 2025 season, Dylan Cook.
“I mean, I've had a lot of talks with the coaches,” Fautanu said Monday with Pittsburgh reporters. “Right now, it's still kind of up in there, just first day of OTA, just trying to get out there.”
“Obviously, the past couple of weeks have been flipping back and forth, just trying get comfortable. But obviously, if they ask me to play that, I'm gonna play it.”
Starting at right tackle all 17 games last season and working over there before his injury his rookie year, Fautanu said it wasn’t just thrust on him. He said he was asked if he was comfortable doing it. He played there in college and was an All-American and named the Pac 12’s best offensive lineman. The 25-year-old said if you work hard enough at something, you are going to get good at it.
Fautanu admits he’s comfortable on the right side after what he said were thousands and thousands of reps the last couple of years, but he can play the left side too. Even though he was a little rusty, his thoughts, after the first voluntary practice Monday.
“Think for me confidence is everything,” Fautanu said. “The more games and the more reps I had the better I felt just being out there and kind of just playing fast.”
Even in his first full season he started viewing himself as one of the best tackles in the NFL, quick to point out that he still has a lot to improve.
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One thing he would like, and we saw on Monday, is to work next to second-year guard Mason McCormick.
“I mean, playing last year together, he's helped me out a lot in terms of being able to play fast and being very communicative from when things are loud,” Fautanu said. “And Zach's kind of dealing with all he's got to deal with. Mason's right there to help me out. But any guard that's playing next to me, him, Brock, Spencer, you can go down the list. Everyone's in a new offense, so we're all kind of adjusting. But at the same time, Mason has helped me a lot. Obviously, I would love to play next to him again.”
Ultimately it doesn’t matter to Fautanu which side he plays on, as he puts it ‘the right side or left side, I think I got to block the guy regardless’. He tries to approach it the same from either side and doesn’t want to make a big deal of it, like maybe other tackles might.
It’s about what is best for the team.
“Like I said, they asked me to play left, I'm gonna do it.”
What Steelers 3rd year tackle said of moving to left tackle on 1st day of OTAs
What Steelers 3rd year tackle said of moving to left tackle on 1st day of OTAs
