Steelers Draft Profile: ‘Aggressive’ Oregon State Tackle Taliese Fuaga Perfect Scheme and Personality Fit

MOBILE, Ala. — If football doesn’t work out for Oregon State offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga — his first-round draft lock status seems to suggest it probably will — he at least has a backup career path of becoming the greatest bouncer known to man.

Fuaga looks the part, with a thin mustache, an untamed beard and a shock of long hair flowing behind his helmet. Then, he sends defensive linemen flying through the air like rowdy over-served patrons being told to get out and stay out.

Laiatu Latu, a UCLA defensive end that is widely considered to be the best player at the 2024 Senior Bowl in Mobile, found out the hard way on Tuesday. And while some from around the country may have the disadvantage of just finding out about the best of the Pacific Northwest, Latu knows better. His Bruins have faced Fuaga three straight years.

That didn’t stop him from getting kicked out of the club by Fuaga just as the Senior Bowl practices were getting started.

Penn State defensive end Adisa Isaac has been on the receiving end of Fuaga’s ire, as well.

The real scary part? Pass protection isn’t even what he does best. But it’s clear that Fuaga has a flair for the dramatic. When he wins a rep, it’s usually followed by a defender on their back and an “ooh” from an audience that is well-trained to inhibit such reactions.

“I would say my game is aggressive,” Fuaga said. “Sometimes too aggressive. I like to set the tone sometimes to get guys going. That’s one of the biggest things that I like to bring to the table, being aggressive.”

He certainly is that, and in run-blocking even more so. He dominates defenders on double teams and has the athleticism to climb to the second level and wreak havoc there, as well. 

While plenty of teams have interest in Fuaga, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a desire to replace Dan Moore at tackle, again, after attempting to do so with Broderick Jones in 2023. Jones ended up playing right tackle, even though he says he’s better suited to the left. 

A right tackle that could move Jones back to his natural spot, that plays with a nasty demeanor and runs blocks like nobodies business? Practicing on the day that the Steelers made a deal with run-first offensive coordinator Arthur Smith? Yeah, you’d better believe that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has been a very invested spectator in Fuaga’s week.

“It was crazy,” Fuaga said of doing drills with Tomlin barking over his shoulder. “I met Mike Tomlin during the interviews the other day. It was kind of surprising. I didn’t expect him to be there. Meeting him, I’ve got some family that are Steelers fans, so just to be able to talk to that guy in real life was kind of crazy.”

Latu, on other hand, was an expected part of this process. And while the UCLA edge rusher might be the best in Mobile, the idea of proving himself against the best of the entire country is what drew the sure-fire first round pick to attend the Senior Bowl in the first place.

“He’s a really good pass rusher,” Fuaga said. “Top of the line kind of guy in the nation. He’s a very active rusher. He doesn’t stop. You might stop one move and he’s got another one in the back of his bag. … That’s probably the main reason that I came down here, just to get that extra work in, get that completion and get a little taste of what it feels like to go against NFL-caliber guys. It’s a great feeling just to get that extra work in.”

While teams perform both run- and pass-blocking drills in Mobile, it’s the pass-rush one-on-ones that draw significant attention, and Fuaga is just fine with that. He knows that he’s a dominant run-blocker, but he wanted to showcase his ability to be more than that, as well.

“Everybody likes to say, ‘He’s a great run blocker’ and stuff, but I just want to be able to show that I’m well-balanced,” he said. “Definitely working on that with Paul Alexander. He’s a great coach. He’s definitely helped me so that I can win my one on ones.”

There’s one more reason to think that Fuaga might not need to rely on another career path any time soon. Despite his surly demeanor on the field, he’s a true leader off the field, and has been a center of gravity for players not only this week, but in his time at Oregon State.

To understand that part of his character, you have to understand his backstory. Fuaga attended Mount Tahoma High School, a small school without a long history of football success (though its alumni include former Steelers defensive backs coach Ray Horton). Fuaga had the ability to transfer to a bigger, more successful school to chase a state title. He didn’t.

The Beavers were the first team to recruit Fuaga coming out of high school. Even when big-time programs like USC and Oregon came calling later in the process, he stuck with his commitment to Oregon State.

With the Beavers now left out of the collapse of the Pac-12 and become a college football pariah, Fuaga said he’s proud to run out onto the field with a Beavers helmet on one last time, representing his school and the people there.

“Underrated team,” he said. “We’re always looked down on in the Pac-12, now the Pac-2. Oregon State has always been that team, like oh, it’s just Oregon State. They’re not that good. I think over the years, me, Kitan (Oladapo) and the other leaders over there, we made a statement. The Beavers have impacted.”

This week in Mobile, at least one Beaver certainly made an impact, and his opponents have the bruises to prove it.

TALE OF THE TAPE

Measured at the 2024 NFL Combine:

Height/Weight: 6-foot-5 3/4, 324 pounds Hand Size: 10 1/8 Arm Length: 33 1/8 Wingspan: 80 5/8

The arm length measurement is a red flag for some teams, who generally prefer offensive tackles to have 34-inch arms. That standard ended up being applied to Chicago Bears 2023 first-round draft pick Peter Skoronski, who played left tackle at Northwestern, but guard as a rookie in the NFL. Skoronski’s arms are 32 1/4 inches, so he has a more significant handicap in that area than Fuaga.

Fuaga said that he had no idea that he had shorter-than-average arms for a tackle or that his arm length would cause a conversation during the draft process.

“I honestly did not know that was a part of this process, but I guess it was like 33 or something? I’m not to sure about how any of that works, but I think as long as, at the end of the day, you can stop your guy in front of you, that’s all I can say. … Everybody over here has the ability to beat anybody. Just being able to get out there on a tackle set, if your technique is clicking for you, then you can stop anybody.”

40-Yard: 5.13 Bench Press: DNP Vertical: 32 Broad: 9-foot-3

10-Yard Split: 1.77 20-Yard Shuttle: DNP 3-Cone: DNP

WHERE WILL TALIESE FUAGA BE DRAFTED?

Fuaga is projected to go right about where the Steelers will pick in the first round, or slightly ahead of there. Since rising into the first round late in his senior season, Fuaga has been considered to be a late teens or early 20s type of player very consistently.

There are a raft of OL-needy teams starting at No. 13 where the Las Vegas Raiders pick, and continuing through the New Orleans Saints at No. 14, Seattle Seahawks at No. 16, Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 17, Cincinnati Bengals at No. 18, Los Angeles Rams at No. 19, Steelers at No. 20, and Miami Dolphins at No. 21. 

It seems nearly impossible to imagine Fuaga making it through to the end of that group.

TALIESE FUAGA SCOUTING REPORT

The reason that Fuaga has had so much success as a tackle …

despite those short arms is his quickness. He described the way he approaches pass sets as a time and space problem. He has to get his hands into a place before the defender gets there. Because his arms are shorter, he has to move quicker to get there at the same time as a longer-armed player.

The good news is that he is quick, and has exceptional balance to use that burst and stay vertical, without giving away a leverage advantage. It does mean that he can sell out for one move and miss. Fuaga doesn’t give up many clean looks, but he can get turned back inside if he sets too aggressively. His losses are slow to come, and because he’s played right tackle, are easy for quarterbacks to see coming. That’s why he didn’t give up a single sack in his two-year career as a starter, despite not necessarily projecting as a dominant NFL pass protector.

Fuaga is also very good at sorting out twists and stunts and identifying the correct blocker on overload type blitzes. Again, the strength of his game is run blocking, but he does an excellent job of keeping his losses survivable. You just don’t see free rushers off his edge.

He did have eight penalties in 2023, so that aggression may be something to monitor as a pro.

HOW DOES TALIESE FUAGA FIT?

Fuaga played exclusively right tackle in his time at Oregon State, though he said he is willing to play pretty much anywhere an NFL team asks him to.

“Definitely. Whatever the team asks, I’m willing to do. As long as I get reps in it, and I can rep it out in practice by myself over time. If they ask me to move to guard, I’m willing to do whatever. … I played left tackle in high school, but when I got to college, it was just mainly right tackle and a little bit of guard reps in practice, never in live games.”

The question will be whether team (including the Steelers) see Fuaga as a pure tackle, a pure guard, or a player that could possibly work at both. While the Steelers have a need at tackle, they don’t have a significant immediate need at guard, where James Daniels and Isaac Seumalo played well in 2023.

In terms of which side, if Fuaga plays tackle, it will almost certainly be on the right, where he has experience. If the Steelers draft Fuaga, it would set him up to the right tackle of the future, with Jones moving back to left tackle. If for whatever reason, things didn’t work out there, right guard James Daniels is entering the final year of his contract, and Fuaga could possibly slide inside.