PITTSBURGH — If the Steelers were looking for a narrative, some fairytale story that had heads spinning and tears flowing on the other side of the country, they certainly got one by selecting tackle Troy Fautanu out of Washington with the No. 20 overall pick late Thursday night.

Not only has Fautanu, throughout the leadup to the NFL draft, spoken passionately about his Polynesian ancestry, his parents hailing from American Samoa, but his favorite player as a kid was a familiar one.

This Troy wore that Troy's No. 43, obsessing over the Steelers, their history and winning tradition.

"I know a lot about the team and its history," Fautanu said. "I'm super excited to finally get this over with. It couldn't be any better that it was with the team that I grew up loving."

Perhaps the Fautanu pick will become a movie or "30 for 30" special one day, but that's obviously not now. It also won't matter if the pick flops.

However, general manager Omar Khan said he could've moved up or down. There were also myriad options when they were on the clock. But the Steelers clearly coveted Fautanu the same way he has long valued them.

"We weren't moving off Troy," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.

It makes sense given where the Steelers find themselves in the team-building cycle and also how Khan and vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl have gone about building their team: through the offensive line.

Last year, it was Broderick Jones in the first round. This year, the other side of the line, though Tomlin insisted a decision has not been made on which side Fautanu will play.

The Steelers are also looking at a Day 2 scenario of the draft where at least one of their picks will be dedicated to a center and someone to grow with Fautanu.

"We want to be a physical football team," Khan said. "It has to start up front."

That discussion is what grabbed me most about the Steelers picking Fautanu how and when they did. They could've had Graham Barton from Duke or Oregon's Jackson Powers-Johnson. Impressive players, both.

They also could have went the defensive back route and scooped up Toledo's Quinyon Mitchell or Terrion Arnold out of Alabama.

In theory, Dan Moore Jr. could've held down the fort at the tackle opposite Jones, but there was seemingly a problem with that line of thinking: None of them are Fautanu.

"We were hoping he would be there at 20," Khan said. "This guy loves football."

Added Tomlin, "Just turn the tape on."

Fautanu has an impressive resume — starting every game over the past two seasons, first team All-Pac-12, giving up just three sacks despite playing 1,255 pass-blocking snaps, per Pro Football Focus.

He protected the blind side of prized quarterback Michael Penix Jr., but Washington also played to Fautanu's strengths as an athletic tackle, relying on him to block out in space on toss plays or wide receiver screens.

"I can remember watching them in a hotel room late one evening," Tomlin said. "It was just really impressive schematically, the things they did to highlight his skills.

"Not often do you watch tape and see plays being called that highlight a guy who's not an eligible."

Going into the draft, I wanted the Steelers to prioritize a center — and they still might, with two of the top three still on the board for Day 2. If this was the deviation from that strategy, it's hard to argue after hearing from Fautanu and learning more about how he was used.

And, yeah, it's far bigger than the obvious Polamalu link, though that produced a funny exchange during a recruiting visit Fautanu took to USC. Turns out the Trojans planned it so the Troys would be there at the same time.

Then Troy Polamalu knocked on the door.

"I opened it, and it was Troy, my idol, my GOAT," Fautanu said. "It was a surreal moment. I didn't know what to say. It's so hard to visualize because he's so soft-spoken, everything he did and everything he contributed on the football field. It was very surprising but something I'll never forget."

For anyone who watched the draft, how could you not get emotional watching Fautanu break into tears when he fielded the phone call from Tomlin, his lifelong dream realized?

"I was a little crybaby, not gonna lie," Fautanu told us. "I'm just so happy that things happened the way they did and I was able to get drafted by a team like the Steelers."

There's an understated versatility to Fautanu's game, where he's seemingly just as comfortable at left guard as either tackle spot, though that's probably a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency scenario.

We're also talking about someone who's more than a mauler, who has a volleyball background and wore Polamalu's number whenever he played fullback and defensive line before he was shifted to offensive line as a sophomore in high school.

Whether it's because of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields or Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, it's doubtful the Steelers are going to turn down an athletic tackle, especially one they believe also possesses a mean streak.

"His commitment to the game, his passion for the game, it was very evident," Tomlin said.

So excited was Fautanu during his draft party that he actually misplaced his cellphone, returning to find a bunch of messages from family and friends. Some of them may have stemmed from the later portion of the first round when Fautanu unexpectedly fell to his favorite team.

"Everything happens for a reason," Fautanu said.

Sure does — especially when it comes to juicy storylines like this one.

But when it comes to the Steelers, who have so many goals still in front of them, including bumping Jones to the left side and picking up a center on Friday, it must be more than an entertaining narrative.

This must be the addition of a player who helps them right away because there was no shortage of them available when the Steelers made their pick.

"I don't want to beat a dead horse," Fautanu said. "But I'm just so happy that this is the organization that took a chance on me.

"I'm ready to pour everything into this organization and get to work."

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