OT was the first draft position I watched back in October and haven’t watched a ton since then, moving on to other positions. But over the past couple of days I just went back to watch Troy Fautanu because of the interest the Eagles have shown in him.
Among fans, Fautanu is maybe the poster boy for the “play him at RG and then he moves over after Lane retires to be our franchise RT” draft strategy. This view is enticing but I’ve been vocal questioning it for two reasons:
- People way too easily make the assumption that somebody will just slide into RG, fill in as an OT backup if Lane or Mailata goes down, and then become our franchise, Lane-replacing RT down the road – switching positions is hard
- Lane has said he wants to play out this contract which is 3 years and the view that “he is always hurt” is wrong – he’s played 87% of snaps since 2020, right with the top OTs
Of course you don’t force a position or pick, but teams can move up or down in the draft to align need and value (which the Eagles have done almost every year). And while I don’t think an OT makes any sense, I wanted to get my head around it as the Eagles are showing a lot of interest in Fautanu and OTs in general.
And I have to say I don’t see Fautanu as an NFL tackle or a 1st round pick. Or, if you don’t agree and are more positive, there are at least questions.
Looking for matchups
Overall, if you just looked at Fautanu’s stats, you’d like a lot about him. He’s played a ton with 623 pass blocking snaps, more than anybody in this class except linemate Roger Rosengarten who beats him by 2 snaps. And Fautanu has an 88.2 pass blocking grade, but a much lower 62.6 run blocking grade.
But I was looking for matchups with future NFL pass rushers. I value matchups a lot – you don’t always get them, but when you do they are great to see players up against future NFL players. And it’s really hard to find Fautanu vs. good pass rushers. They didn’t play UCLA this year so no Latu or Murphy in 2023.
UCLA 2022
But they did play UCLA in 2022 where Fautanu had plenty of reps against Grayson Murphy and Latu. And they weren’t good. On 21 pass protection snaps, Fautanu allowed 4 pressures and got called for 2 holds.
Clip 1: Against Latu, maybe Fautanu trips but Latu gets past him
Clips 2-3: Two more snaps against Latu, both of these drew holding calls.
I think Latu is the best pass rusher in this class, but he’s still a college player. What is Fautanu going to look like against Micah and Nick Bosa and DeMarcus Lawrence?
Clips 4-7: Now 4 snaps against Grayson Murphy, a very good pass rusher but a guy projected to go mid day three. On the first snap, Murphy pulls Fautanu off balance and gets past him, the second Fautanu gets beat inside (which you see way too often on his film), and then two snaps where he just doesn’t hold blocks.
You will hear “block with your feet” and too often Fautanu’s feet are out of position and he is trying to use his length. You see this in some of the above clips.
Utah 2023
The other game I wanted to see was Utah in 2023 as I like Jonah Elliss a lot. But Fautanu rarely went up against Elliss so there wasn’t much to go on there. But here’s a clip against Connor O’Toole where Fautanu at LT is again beaten inside. O’Toole is a decent pass rusher but not anywhere near Latu or Murphy.
Texas 2023
One last clip from this year’s college playoffs. Texas has good interior defenders but nothing great on the EDGE, but I wanted to see Fautanu against Byron Murphy II or T’Vondre Sweat since many are projecting Fautanu to OG.
Here, Fautanu has help and Byron Murphy pulls past him. Fautanu probably holds him on his way to the QB (no flag was thrown).
Final thoughts
I hate posting about guys issues and it’s not my intent. I actually hope I’m wrong, but there is so much momentum on Fautanu and in my opinion, is not the elite prospect many have him as. I don’t see him as a tackle (which many don’t have him listed there, despite having the arm length):
Film vs. NFL EDGE rushers: He has good film, anybody that would say he doesn’t is wrong. But I was specifically looking for him vs. NFL EDGE rushers. There just isn’t much film because Washington didn’t go up against top EDGE rushers this year.
Difficulty of his assignments: Arjun Menon just posted this class’s OTs and how often they were left on an island. Fautanu is last at 53.7% of the time. I didn’t specifically chart this but came away thinking “he has help half the time”, which was right.
Time to throw: Add in that Michael Penix threw at one of the quicker rates in college, and fastest of this class’s QBs at an average of 2.68 seconds and 2.43 seconds when not under pressure and their OL just wasn’t asked to block super long.
Penalties: I mentioned the two holding calls against Latu, but Fautanu has 15 penalties over the past two seasons (14 enforced and another that was declined) on just over 1,200 snaps. He’s not alone here as some other top guys have racked up a bunch, but it’s something to note.