There were certainly a couple of question marks about the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive line coming into the season, but Troy Fautanu wasn't one of them.

The 2024 first-round pick was super reliable for the Steelers last season after appearing in just one game as a rookie due to a knee injury, and the expectation was that he'd take further steps forward in 2026 while moving from right tackle to left tackle.

While there's been some flashes from Fautanu, his transition to left tackle hasn't been smooth to say the least, and he just turned in arguably his worst performance of the year in a 16-10 win over the New Orleans Saints at the Stade de France in Paris.

Diving into Fautanu's Rough Day

A vast majority of Fautanu's reps in pass protection vs. New Orleans were against Chase Young, which is bad news for most offensive tackles.

The 2020 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, Young has found a home with the Saints and become one of the better pass rushers across the NFL.

Young certainly proved that to Fautanu, who allowed two sacks and four total pressures against him over 25 total reps in pass protection (per SumerSports).

Fautanu shut out Anfernee Jennings, Cameron Jordan and Kaden Elliss over a combined nine reps between the three, but that wasn't nearly enough to negate his shortcomings against Young.

Should There Be Real Concern About Fauntanu?

According to Pro Football Focus, Fautanu has given up 20 pressures and four sacks through seven games this season.

Considering he was credited with allowing just 31 pressures and three sacks for Pittsburgh over 17 games in 2025, it's easy to come away with the opinion that Fautanu has regressed upon moving positions and playing under a new coaching staff.

Per PFF, Fautanu had never allowed two sacks in a single game either before Young accomplished that feat against him.

At the same time, he deserves some grace given all of those previously mentioned factors. Fautanu did not give up a sack between Weeks 3 and 5, so there is reason to believe he could become a true stalwart at left tackle as long as he develops some consistency there.

As the rest of the offensive line has improved, though, especially once Brock Hoffman and Max Iheanachor were inserted into the starting lineup in Week 3, Fautanu has now regressed after the initial returns were pretty strong when that change was initially made by Pittsburgh.

There's a clear learning curve to switch sides of the line and it's possible the Steelers will just have to contend with some general volatility from Fautanu for the rest of the season.

He's far too talented to completely write off, and he's previously shown that he can produce at a high level. If Fautanu doesn't bounce back from his poor showing against the Saints and make some real strides over the back half of the season, though, then it may be time to have some real discussions about his future in Pittsburgh.