{"id":176261,"date":"2026-04-26T03:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T03:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/176261\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T03:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T03:48:17","slug":"eli-heidenreich-reveals-he-committed-to-another-team-as-udfa-before-steelers-drafted-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/176261\/","title":{"rendered":"Eli Heidenreich Reveals He Committed To Another Team As UDFA Before Steelers Drafted Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eli Heidenreich was already coming to terms with becoming an undrafted free agent. That is, until the Pittsburgh Steelers told him the news that he, a native of the city who played at Mt. Lebanon, was staying right at home.<\/p>\n<p>Heidenreich spoke to ESPN right after becoming Pittsburgh\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/04\/pittsburgh-steelers-select-navy-rb-wr-eli-heidenreich-in-seventh-round-of-2026-nfl-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">final selection of the draft, 230th overall.<\/a> He revealed he verbally agreed to sign with another team before getting the call from the Steelers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were a lot of undrafted free agent discussions going on back there,\u201d he told ESPN. \u201cI actually committed to a team. And then the Steelers came in, and all the emotions kind of hit me at once.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s common for teams to contact players in the final round to express interest in signing them as undrafted free agents, and it doesn\u2019t violate any league rules. But that commitment is only verbal and non-binding in case a team drafts the player, as was the case with Heidenreich Saturday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Heidenreich didn\u2019t share which team he agreed to sign with. But that team will have to look elsewhere to replace his diverse skill set. He was a <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/04\/depot-roundtable-who-is-your-steelers-draft-crush\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">versatile receiver and runner<\/a> who had a prolific career at Navy.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s just the second Navy player the Steelers have ever drafted. Pittsburgh selected DT Glen Nardi in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/pit\/draft.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">16th round of the 1973 NFL Draft.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was thinking back to all the games I\u2019d been to growing up all throughout my life of being in Heinz Field and watching those games go down,\u201d Heidenreich said after being picked. \u201cAnd then I\u2019m gonna have the opportunity to go out and then and play for the black and gold,\u201d he said of being picked. \u201cIt was a fantastic feeling. Nothing like I\u2019ve ever felt before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some analysts will argue it\u2019s better to be an undrafted free agent than a seventh-round pick. A chance to choose your team and evaluate the scheme and roster. But nothing replaces a moment like what Heidenreich experienced tonight. The Steelers called his name in his hometown, allowing him to walk onstage to a crowd of cheering fans. No one can put a price on that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli Heidenreich was already coming to terms with becoming an undrafted free agent. That is, until the Pittsburgh&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[78173,1421,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-176261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-eli-heidenreich","tag-espn","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176261","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=176261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}