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By Matt Levine
Contributing Sports Writer
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The injuries continue to pile up for the Pittsburgh Steelers as rookie right tackle Troy Fautanu suffered a knee injury in practice on Friday. He will now be sidelined indefinitely as the number of starting offensive linemen dwindles for Pittsburgh.
More news: Browns Star Myles Garrett Will Attempt to Play Through Significant Injury
The Steelers have already lost center Nate Nerbig for the season due to a rotator cuff tear and guard Isaac Seumalo has been out the first two weeks of the season.
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ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported the news of this injury on social media.
Fautanu was expected to make his second career start on Sunday for the Steelers against the Los Angeles Chargers but fate had other ideas. He will now get an MRI to evaluate the severity of the injury.
Teammate Broderick Jones said that Fautanu tweaked something on Friday but that they didn't know to what extent the injury was.
"We really don't know what his status is going to be," Jones said of Fautanu. "I filled in for him and then just going to roll from there after he gets his MRI and stuff, and we'll just figure out what's going on from there."
With Fautanu now missing time, Jones will be stepping in to fill his shoes. The former first-round draft pick in 2023 is hoping to put on a better performance than he has in the past.
"It's nothing new," Jones said of stepping in. "It ain't nothing mystical, so I just got to get out of there and do it whenever my name's called."
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Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has learned how to deal with mixing and matching players in the lineup over the years. Prior to the injury that Fautanu suffered, Tomlin was planning on using both Fautanu and Jones in the lineup.
"I had intentions of utilizing both guys," Tomlin said Tuesday. "I acknowledged that Troy was healthy. I acknowledged that Troy was capable. That's why we started him, but I rolled him because I had concerns about his level of conditioning. He's a young guy. He's new to me. He's new to the NFL. I didn't know how fatigue would affect his play in terms of detail, and so he tried to ward off some of that. And so I had every intention to using Broderick, but when Broderick started getting highly penalized in play, I backed off of it and I held my breath and I played Troy."
Pittsburgh has been able to stay afloat due to a strong defensive showing in the first two weeks. Quarterback Justin Fields has done just enough offensively to help them get wins but this injury could be a significant blow.
The Steelers sit with a record of 2-0 on the young season and will be looking to make it 3-0 when the Chargers come to town this weekend.
For more Steelers news and updates, make sure to head over to Newsweek Sports.
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