As Pittsburgh Steelers right tackle Troy Fautanu was walking into the players’ dorm at Saint Vincent College to start the team’s 2025 training camp, he vividly flashed back to a single snap during spring workouts.

The first play of the “Seven Shots” red zone drill. Day 1 of organized team activities.

“You could tell I was nervous watching the film. But after that? This is football. I’ve been playing this my whole life. Whether (or not) I was out for 10 months, it felt good to be back out there,” Fautanu said with a sigh.

With that, Fautanu’s “redshirt freshman season” was underway. That’s how last year’s first-round draft choice characterized 2025 for himself later in that interview. The former Washington Husky was injured during the preseason opener in Houston. Then he was hurt again in practice immediately after he made his NFL debut in Week 2 of the regular season versus Denver.

A dislocated kneecap cost Fautanu Year 1 of his pro career after just one game. Now, he’s as anxious as anyone to get the season underway, beginning with preseason Game No. 1 Saturday night in Jacksonville.

“I was around the building last year. It’s not like I was away,” Fautanu said. “I feel like a lot of the stuff I could have brought to the team, I can share that now. I have a little bit more confidence going into this year, being in that room, being able to share what I have on my mind. I’m super excited for what we have in front of us. I can’t wait to play ball.”

But Fautanu isn’t the only second-year Steeler of significance embarking on a “redshirt freshman” campaign. So is receiver Roman Wilson. An ankle injury in the team’s first padded practice and a late-October hamstring injury put Wilson behind the curve enough that he accounted for just five offensive snaps and spent most of the season on injured reserve.

On the team’s first preseason depth chart, Wilson was not only listed behind the likes of DK Metcalf and Calvin Austin, but also Scotty Miller and Robert Woods.

If the Michigan alum is going to prove worthy of his third-round draft status, he’d better be more impactful than that.

“I feel like every day I wake up, I make some progress,” Wilson said after a recent practice. “That’s my goal. Get 1% better every day. That’s what I plan to do.”

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When it came to his health struggles last year, Wilson admits that he may have accelerated that pace too much.

“At some point last season, it clicked for me, and I felt like myself again, especially with my ankle. At certain points, I was trying to do a little too much, trying to get back. As far as football (now), I’m just thinking one step at a time, left foot, right foot. Build progress every day,” Wilson said.

To this point, coach Mike Tomlin has been pleased with the development of both players.

“I think they’re both having really good camps,” Tomlin said Monday. “We need them to. They don’t need to behave like rookies, although they didn’t have a lot of exposure in terms of playing time a year ago. They have been a part of the program, and I think that should show itself. So far it has. They’re both making plays and doing a nice job of it.”

The need for both Fautanu and Wilson to excel is glaring. In the case of Fautanu, there is no way to overstate how crucial it is for him to slot in as a durable, dependable right tackle while Broderick Jones hopefully finds some consistency at his more natural position at left tackle.

Especially as they try to secure the edges for a 41-year-old starting quarterback in Aaron Rodgers.

In the case of Wilson, for the second year in a row, the Steelers have a wide gap between the top wide receiver option (Metcalf this year, George Pickens a year ago) and the No. 2 player at the position. Calvin Austin leapt from 180 yards in 2023 to 546 in 2024. Similar numbers from Wilson would go a long way toward at least giving the receiving room more depth.

“This is a big camp and a big process for Roman, going into Year 2 and not having much participation in Year 1. But the standards of expectation and improvement (are) the same,” Tomlin said. “He’s not in uncharted waters. Calvin Austin III walked that same journey very recently, missing a lot of time from his rookie year, and it hasn’t slowed the trajectory of his progress and career to this point.”

Wilson and Fautanu will be happy to exchange their red shirts for black and gold jerseys on game days starting Saturday night. For the sake of Tomlin’s offense, both men better be wearing them more often than just one regular-season contest in 2025.

Listen: Tim Benz and Joe Rutter preview the preseason opener in Jacksonville during Thursday’s “Letters from Camp” podcast

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