New Steelers OT Troy Fautanu has simple but perfect way of showing he wanted Pittsburgh to draft him

Not even 24 hours after making the call , the Pittsburgh Steelers officially introduced 2024 first-round pick Troy Fautanu on Friday:

And while Pittsburgh clearly wanted him, Fautanu revealed that donning the black and gold had been in his dreams for some time:

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Fautanu's Dream Comes to Fruition

"I mean, once again, like, just the grit that the team plays with," Fautanu said on why he loves the Steelers."Like, I grew up a really big fan of Ben Roethlisberger. That's what I always seen him to do. You know what I mean? He's out there commanding the team and commanding that offense. And I always thought he was one of the toughest guys I've ever seen play. Like, he'd get hit and get right back up, you know? That inspired me to play the way that I do. So, yeah, hats off, man. Coach Tomlin's done a really great job, you know what I mean? And I'm just so happy to be under him and learn from him."

And while the pre-draft process is one big job interview that all 32 teams pay close attention to, Fautanu's love for Pittsburgh never faded. Despite wanting to come off as partial in his NFL allegiance, Fautanu kept up at least one of his Steelers fandom tweets, even if his marketing team didn't want him to:

The whole situation worked out greatly in the Steelers' favor, but coming into draft night, it wasn't set up to be that way.

Fautanu was estimated to be long gone by the time Pittsburgh was on the clock at 20. A historic run on QBs helped Pittsburgh's cause, however, as a record-setting six QBs went in the top 12 picks, including five in the top 10.

That set up a draft board where Pittsburgh had their pick of every CB in the draft, every center, and a variety of first-round caliber tackles.

None of them graded out as high as Fautanu did, or at least not for Pittsburgh, who spent the evening sweating until they were on the clock:

So while draft night is an accumulation of all the work it took to get to the NFL, (which is a dream scenario in itself) landing with the team you have been a fan of for your whole life adds a cherry on top of the euphoric feeling on the southside this weekend.

Related: The 3 biggest remaining needs for the Steelers heading into Day 2 of the NFL Draft