OMAR KHAN: Appreciate you guys all being here. As you know, we drafted Troy Fautanu. Excited to have him as a member of this organization. He's a Steeler. We spent a great deal of time with him. We met with Troy at the combine, Pat Meyer attended his pro day. We had him in here for a 30 visit. Like I said, we're excited to have him here and can't wait for the rookie camp to see him here.
MIKE TOMLIN: Really excited about Troy, as Omar said. And the tape was just really, really impressive, not only in terms of his talents, but really I think his talents were really highlighted by the way that Washington utilized his talents schematically. You saw everything that you wanted to see. You saw him out in space in the perimeter game, be it crack toss or wide receiver screens. He was great in the run game. He was great as a drop-back passer, pass protector. We had great visits through the process. Went to Tuscaloosa, obviously, to handle some Alabama business, but we had an opportunity to really talk to some people in Tuscaloosa that had some firsthand knowledge of his capabilities, the coaching staff, and he just checked every box. We're really excited to have him and we'll pause and open it up for questions.
Q. Is he sticking left tackle or will you try him on the right side?
MIKE TOMLIN: Right now he's a tackle. Maybe we'll have a little bit more detail for you in the morning.
Q. Is he center capable?
MIKE TOMLIN: No, we're not concerned about that. We're legitimately see him as a tackle.
Q. How much did it help that six tackles were taken ahead of him?
OMAR KHAN: Yeah, I'm sure that in the grand scheme of things that definitely helped. Not just for us, I'm sure there are other teams that that helped, but we're excited to have him.
Q. To that point, you had every corner on the board, plenty of wide receivers on the board, every center on the board. Is there anything about your evaluation of the tackle position that came into play in this as well or was it just about a player?
OMAR KHAN: I would say that he was a player that we had rated really high up on the board. He was one of the guys that we were hoping would be there and that we were targeting. When he was, we were on the clock -- when they, when we were at 19 and waiting for to see what the Rams picked, and it was just -- we just felt really good about it. He's the player we wanted.
Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE TOMLIN: I think position aside, he was the highest rated guy on our board. So that just speaks to our level of excitement about having an opportunity to get him.
Q. As this went on did you field any calls about maybe moving up or back?
OMAR KHAN: Yeah, the phone was ringing, obviously, to move up, move back. It's just part of it. At the end of the day we had the opportunity to move back if we wanted to, but when we were at 19 and waiting for the Rams to make their selection and they picked who they picked, and we were just, we weren't going to --
MIKE TOMLIN: We weren't moving off Troy, no.
Q. You mentioned his tape being impressive. But when you met with him what was that like?
MIKE TOMLIN: His commitment to the game, his passion for the game really was very evident in communicating with him. That was relayed to us by those that had an opportunity to not only coach him, but we talked to a lot of guys that played with him. His passion is real. It is a calling card. Coupled with his tremendous athletic talent.
Q. (No microphone.)
MIKE TOMLIN: A lot of that. I think his dad is the original Steeler fan in the household. But just, he's really excited to be here. We'll let him speak for himself, but he is just a very impressive young man. Upside, young guy in the draft pool, a lot of talent, passion for the game. We're just really excited.
Q. (Question about filling in the offensive line.)
OMAR KHAN: Yeah, I think it's, for obvious reasons, I've said it from the beginning, the offensive line, defensive line, those are big priorities, the big men, that's where it starts. We want to be a physical football team and it's got to start up there.
Q. Obviously most tackles check in 6'-4" or taller, what is it about Troy that gives you the confidence he can do it, and are there other guys that he reminds you of who have done it at his size?
MIKE TOMLIN: You know, what are we talking about? If he was a quarter of an inch taller you might not be asking that. He's got great arm length and his tape is very, very impressive. It's probably one of the reasons why he was available to us, so we really probably appreciate his stature, to be quite honest with you.
Q. Is it tough to sit there and wait when you like this guy so much, thinking, maybe I need to move up one or two?
OMAR KHAN: Every one of those 10 minutes were the longest 10 minutes of my life, I promise you that.
MIKE TOMLIN: He is not kidding you either. He wore me out (laughing).
Q. Is that daunting though, there's not many tackles --
OMAR KHAN: Absolutely. But just because it's him, like Coach mentioned, he was really high on our board, and just hoping he would still be there at 20 and, yeah, glad -- I don't even know what time it is right now, but, yeah. It's 10:53. Yeah, can't say enough about how excited we are to have him. This guy loves football. I can't wait for you guys to get the opportunity to talk to him.
MIKE TOMLIN: Just turn the tape on.
OMAR KHAN: This guy loves it.
Q. There was some stories about a medical concern about his knee that bumped him down.
OMAR KHAN: We wouldn't select him if we weren't comfortable with it. I can't speak for some of the stuff that's put out there and what's true and what's not and what other people are saying, but we're comfortable.
Q. He seemed pretty emotional on the screen.
MIKE TOMLIN: He was. We were laughing at him a little bit earlier because he looked angry, because some tackles were coming off. But you want that. You want a guy that takes it personally. I think that he does. He just shows all the signs of the type of guy that we want to do business with. It's important to him.
Q. Were there any other qualities that stood out to you regarding him?
MIKE TOMLIN: I just think his relationship with the game is a pure one. He's a competitor. He loves football. He loves the things that come with football, based on talking to those around him, the preparation things, the training, practice, he's just, he's a black and gold type of a guy.
OMAR KHAN: He's a great teammate. He's a great teammate also.
Q. Do you remember anything about how he first fell on your radar? Maybe how you first got interested in him?
OMAR KHAN: Our scouts early on, they felt really good about him. Mark Bruener, he's a Washington alum, he's one of our scouts, and I joked with him, I think the only school he scouts is the University of Washington, because he talks about those guys so often. But he was the guy we were intrigued by early on.
MIKE TOMLIN: For me, watching him late in the season, just trying to -- they were making a lot of noise out west as a collective as a football team, so I can remember laying in the hotel room watching them late one evening, and it was just really impressive, schematically, the things that they were doing that highlighted his skills. Their perimeter game was very left-handed, and just watching it from a spectator's perspective it just let's you know that that left tackle was a special player in their eyes, just by play selection. Not very often do you watch tape and see plays being called to highlight a guy that's not an eligible, but that's what it looked like watching UW tape.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports