Fautanu Is Doing His Best Blocking In Gathering Draft Intel on Himself
If you're a sports agent, Troy Fautanu is one of those University of Washington football players with a big decision to make but someone who you really don't want to mess with. Don't want to lie to. Shouldn't bother with a flimsy sales pitch.
Not only can he overpower and run around you in the trenches, with his abundance of strength and athleticism, he's got a cerebral side to him that's impressive. He can outthink you to death.
The 6-foot-4, 312-pound sophomore offensive tackle from Henderson, Nevada, currently is mulling his football future, making a concentrated effort to gather all pertinent information on where he stands as an NFL prospect, and he's in no mood for someone trying to sell him something that isn't there.
"I can like hear all this stuff — how good I am — and just make a dumb decision or a decision that wasn't educated," Fautanu said. "So I'm trying to make sure I have all the information right and make sure I have all the information in front of me, that's correct and sourced. So I don't really know, We're trying to figure it out."
Here's an example of what this veteran lineman is faced with that can be so complicated and mind-numbing: Strictly from us doing a random internet search for the latest information on this Husky, Fautanu turned up 264th on NFLDraftScout.com, which puts together a composite rating on prospects compiled from where they stand on several draft boards.
Last April, just 262 players were selected in real time, which involved 32 players going to teams in each of the seven rounds, plus compensatory picks.
This means Fautanu would have fallen just outside the draft parameters of "Mr. Irrelevant," or the final player selected. He have would needed to take his chances and push forward as a free agent.
Troy Fautanu is being concientious in gathering accurate draft info on himself.
Skylar Lin Visuals
Then again, he could listen to ESPN's draft experts, a group that includes Mel Kiper Jr., Todd McShay, Jordan Reid and Matt Miller, who over the past week were each asked to update their individual lists ranking the top five college players at every position for the draft.
Just one Husky turned up in this exercise and at a different position than he plays now — Fautanu.
Kiper slotted him as the draft's fifth-best offensive guard, with the ESPN guru putting him behind Florida's O'Cyrus Torrence, Oregon State's Joshua Gray, Michigan's Zak Zinter and Notre Dame's Jarrett Patterson, which no doubt means he would be selected if the draft was held today probably in a middle round.
However, Fautanu, with the help of his Husky coaches, is seeking draft assessments from NFL personnel rather than agents or the self-styled analysts. He's paying close attention to all the ins and outs of becoming a professional football player, picking up things you normally don't hear right away.
"I've been waiting for this for my entire life; not just getting there, but staying there," he said. "I'm hearing this stuff that the lifespan of an NFL player is a couple of years, three years. My goal was to make it to the NFL, but now I'm kind of what can I do to elevate my game so that I stay once I get there?"
He's been making people notice him, recently receiving second-team, All-Pac-12 honors by a vote of the coaches and third-team, all-conference recognition from Pro Football Focus.
So Fautanu pushes forward with his football pursuits, getting ready to play in the Alamo Bowl against Texas on Dec. 29 irregardless of what he hears about his draft position. He'll let everything else sort itself out once he and his family and UW coaches gather all of the draft-assessment information available on him. He's got a game to play.
He knows that his former Husky teammates in offensive tackle Trey Adams and tight end Hunter Bryant both sat out the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl in order to protect their pro football interests only to go undrafted, which would suggest they weren't given the right intel. He's playing in San Antonio no matter what anyone says about his NFL chances.
"There was no question for me and my family I was going to play in this bowl game, no question at all," Fautanu said. "I wouldn't do that to my teammates, I wouldn't do that to my coaches. I wouldn't do that to myself because I feel we've worked so hard to get to this point. Why would I not play in this game?"
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