One of the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 most criticized draft picks was selecting Iowa returner\/WR Kaden Wetjen in the fourth round. Wetjen only caught 23 passes in his college career, with 20 of them coming as a senior, but he made his mark as a return specialist.<\/p>\n
Wetjen returned two kicks and four punts for touchdowns during his college career and led the FBS in punt return average in 2025. He also led the Big Ten in kick return average in 2024 and 2025. I genuinely believe there\u2019s a path for Wetjen to be Pittsburgh\u2019s most productive rookie, given his return ability.<\/p>\n
Ideally, Wetjen isn\u2019t going to be the team\u2019s most productive rookie. The hope is that Max Iheanachor can start on Day 1 and that Germie Bernard emerges in the slot. Gennings Dunker could have a chance to start at guard, too.<\/p>\n
But the Steelers do have returners on the roster who could make things more difficult for their earlier selections. Even if Broderick Jones can\u2019t go Week 1, the Steelers could opt to start Troy Fautanu and Dylan Cook at tackle. Cook was solid in his starting stint at the end of last season, and if he looks steady in training camp, it may be tough to bench him.<\/p>\n
Roman Wilson hasn\u2019t been productive at this point in his career, but if he doesn\u2019t put it together this season, his time in Pittsburgh could come to an end. If Wilson has a strong camp, that could limit opportunities for Bernard, while Brock Hoffman and Spencer Anderson will compete with Dunker for the starting left guard job.<\/p>\n
Daylen Everette, the other player taken ahead of Wetjen aside from Drew Allar, will likely begin his career as a backup outside cornerback behind Joey Porter Jr., Jamel Dean and potentially Asante Samuel Jr. Allar will be a backup as a rookie as he develops.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no one blocking Wetjen in the return game. And if he can be even close to as productive in the NFL as he was in college, Wetjen\u2019s impact could be massive. The Steelers haven\u2019t had a dynamic return man in years, and with the NFL\u2019s new kickoff rules, Wetjen could be a real weapon for the Steelers to help them win the all-important field position battle.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also confident that, if needed, Wetjen could contribute as a receiver after he was the best receiver at the East-West Shrine Bowl. Iowa\u2019s run-heavy offense limited his opportunities, though I\u2019m not really expecting Wetjen to do much as a receiver this year.<\/p>\n
In an ideal scenario, Iheanachor and Bernard are Day 1 starters who make a positive impact on the Steelers\u2019 offense. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s unlikely, either. But given the competition involved across the board, Wetjen has the clearest path to produce and positively contribute to the return game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 most criticized draft picks was selecting Iowa returner\/WR Kaden Wetjen in the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[67346,76989,63989,54823,76713,73,75,74,995],"class_list":["post-183014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-daylen-everette","tag-gennings-dunker","tag-germie-bernard","tag-kaden-wetjen","tag-max-iheanachor","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183014","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=183014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}