{"id":176108,"date":"2026-04-25T22:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/176108\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T22:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:44:10","slug":"navy-rb-eli-heidenreich-selected-by-pittsburgh-steelers-in-seventh-round-of-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/176108\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy RB Eli Heidenreich selected by Pittsburgh Steelers in seventh round of 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Navy running back Eli Heidenreich in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> with the 230th pick.<\/p>\n

Heidenreich was a hybrid runner and pass catcher out of Navy\u2019s modernized offense under offensive coordinator Drew Cronic, who created a \u201cmillennial\u201d version of the Wing T, blending the traditional Navy offense with spread concepts.<\/p>\n

While listed as a running back, Heidenreich has always been more of a pass catcher and played the \u201cSnipe Z\u201d position in Navy\u2019s offense, which freed him up to get involved in the passing game. While in high school at Mt. Lebanon High in Pittsburgh, Heidenreich was an all-conference slot receiver, catching 54 passes for 1,330 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior. He also added 647 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

At Navy, his all-purpose skill set continued to be on display. In his senior season, he turned 77 carries into 499 yards and three rushing touchdowns while catching 51 passes for 941 yards and six touchdowns. He is Navy\u2019s all-time leader in receiving yards (1,994).<\/p>\n

As a senior, he had two games in which he topped 100 receiving yards for the 12-2 Midshipmen, most notably an eight-catch, 243-yard, three-touchdown outburst to beat Air Force 34-31 last October. Against South Florida in November, Heidenreich caught five passes for 146 yards in Navy\u2019s 41-38 win over the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Beast\u2019 breakdown<\/p>\n

Heidenreich ranked No. 167 in Dane Brugler\u2019s top 300 big board<\/a>. Here\u2019s what Brugler had to say about him in his annual NFL Draft guide:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHeidenreich is a versatile all-purpose athlete with acceleration and body control as both a route runner and ball carrier. More quick than explosive, he has mismatch-creating potential out of the slot and catches everything thrown his way, regardless of placement or positioning. He is unproven in pass protection, although there are no questions about his competitive toughness.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeidenreich has dynamic pass-catching ability that can be weaponized in a hybrid role by an NFL offense (think closer to Danny Woodhead than Kyle Juszczyk). He won\u2019t be a fit for everybody, but he will be a fit for somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Navy running back Eli Heidenreich in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[78832,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":{"0":"post-176108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-navy-midshipmen","9":"tag-pittsburgh","10":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","11":"tag-pittsburgh-news","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}