{"id":290633,"date":"2026-09-21T05:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/290633\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T05:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:04:13","slug":"fautanu-is-a-bigger-problem-hoke-doesnt-think-cook-is-steelers-ols-weak-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/290633\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fautanu Is A Bigger Problem’: Hoke Doesn’t Think Cook Is Steelers OL’s Weak Link"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers got crushed by the New England Patriots in Week 2. They lost 20-3, and their offense was a disaster.<\/a> One of that unit\u2019s biggest issues was the offensive line. While there was hope that group would take a serious step forward this year, it\u2019s been more of the opposite. Some fans want Pittsburgh to make a change up front, especially at right tackle with rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor biding his time behind Dylan Cook.<\/p>\n

However, former Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke isn\u2019t ready to go there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis might not be a popular take, but I don\u2019t think Dylan Cook played as bad as people are saying,\u201d Hoke said after the game on the KDKA Nightly Sports Call.<\/a> \u201cYeah, he had the one blitz, looked awful, where he slid out and Spencer Anderson came out, I\u2019m not sure what happened but at the end of the day I just don\u2019t think he is the big problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [Troy] Fautanu is a bigger problem right now than Dylan Cook. He\u2019s the one that gave up more sacks, more hits on the quarterback in my initial look.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook\u2019s low moments have been very low. He\u2019s had some ugly reps at right tackle, and that goes back to the preseason. However, it\u2019s not fair to blame all of the Steelers\u2019 offensive line issues on him.<\/p>\n

And Fautanu has undoubtedly had a rough start to this season. He looked like a capable starter on the right side last year. However, the Steelers moved him to left tackle this offseason. Initially, there was hope that would be a smooth transition because Fautanu mostly played that position in college. However, that hasn\u2019t been the case so far.<\/p>\n

Switching positions along the offensive line isn\u2019t easy. Broderick Jones made that clear in words and in his uneven play while with the Steelers.<\/a> Pittsburgh constantly flipped him between the left and right side, and that never allowed him to get settled in the NFL. Jones blamed that for why he didn\u2019t pan out in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Fautanu might just be experiencing growing pains, but he needs to get back on track sooner rather than later. Aaron Rodgers has been sacked six times in two games. That\u2019s not a terrible number, but the Steelers also haven\u2019t faced teams with elite pass rushers.<\/p>\n

Rodgers faced a ton of pressure in Week 2 as well. He\u2019s 42 years old, and the Steelers\u2019 offense is going to struggle if it doesn\u2019t better protect the quarterback. That\u2019s on Fautanu, Cook, Mason McCormick, Spencer Anderson, and Zach Frazier. That entire unit hasn\u2019t been good enough, and blame shouldn\u2019t be placed on any one player. All of them need to be better.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers got crushed by the New England Patriots in Week 2. They lost 20-3, and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[120568,89391,120569,73,75,74,1833,54839],"class_list":["post-290633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-chris-hoke","tag-dylan-cook","tag-kdka-nightly-sports-call","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-troy-fautanu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}