The Chuck Bednarik Award is annually given to the best defensive player in college football.
The past two times it’s been given to a true, off-ball (inside) linebacker, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected that player in the ensuing NFL Draft.
Could they make it three in a row with Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez?
Projected as a Day 2 pick, Rodriguez is coming off a dynamic senior season in which he helped lead Texas Tech to the College Football Playoff and finished fifth in Heisman Trophy balloting.
“Just doing the work and seeing it pay off is the most gratifying part,” Rodriguez said at the NFL combine, referencing the 2025 season. “Everybody puts in the work, everybody works hard, but having the opportunity for that work to come to fruition, it was a great season.
“I was more proud of what the team was able to accomplish this year and what we did for west Texas.”
A native of Wichita Falls in the Lone Star State, Rodriguez took extra meaning in lifting Texas Tech to its first Big 12 championship. His path to star status in Lubbock and as a linebacker for the Texas Tech program was anything but linear.
Rodriguez began his college career at Virginia — as a quarterback.
But after a freshman season in which he appeared in 12 games and took snaps at quarterback, wide receiver, tight end and running back, Rodriguez transferred closer to home — but without a scholarship in hand at Texas Tech.
“I’m one year removed from high school where I feel like I was a decently high recruited guy,” Rodriguez said, “to now I’m a walk-on three hours from home. The hardest is I’m trying to make the team. There’s no NIL, but I was just trying to make the team. I was just trying not to be cut.”
Rodriguez successfully transitioned to linebacker but was mostly a special teams player in that 2022 sophomore season. Then, his 2023 season was cut short by a foot injury.
But in 2024, Rodriguez began to show how dynamic he could be by filling up the stat sheet: 77 solo tackles (third in the country), 127 overall tackles (127th nationally), a team-high 101⁄2 tackles for loss, five sacks, three forced fumbles, four pass breakups and an interception.
That was good enough for first-team All-Big 12 honors, but Rodriguez would top that and more in 2025 when he became a first-team All-American after leading the country with seven forced fumbles in addition to 128 tackles (11 for loss), four interceptions, six pass breakups and a sack.
“Statistically I’d like to think (I was impressive), but more so what we did as a team,” said Rodriguez, who was a captain.
“That’s something that means (the world) to me.”
Such a mindset lends insight to Rodriguez the person, who is married to an active-duty Aviation Officer and helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, Emma.
Jacob Rodriguez’s maturity is commensurate with him turning 24 before his rookie NFL season begins. The most recent time the Steelers took an inside linebacker in the top half of the draft, they also selected a 24-year-old in Payton Wilson (Round 3 in 2024).
Wilson also was a Bednarik Award winner who was coming off a stellar redshirt senior season. The previous inside linebacker who won the Bednarik before Wilson was Tyler Matakevich in 2015. The Steelers selected Matakevich in the seventh round the following spring.
They can’t wait anywhere near that long this year if they want Rodriguez, whom they chose to invite to their facility for one of their 30 allotted official draft visits.
As NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah recently put it in regards to Rodriguez: “There’s no chance he gets out of the second round.”
Ohio State’s Sonny Styles almost assuredly will be the top inside linebacker chosen at the draft in Pittsburgh next week. Georgia’s CJ Allen, Texas’ Anthony Hill Jr. and Cincinnati’s Jake Golday figure to be among the next ILBs off the board.
Though the Steelers have Wilson, Patrick Queen, Malik Harrison, Cole Holcomb and Carson Bruener at the position, they still might add to that room and are believed to be giving Rodriguez a look.
During a recent conference call with media, Jeremiah said he was “almost nervous” to watch Rodriguez’s film because he had learned so much about him as a person and appreciated his back story so much.
“And then when you watch the tape, you’re like, ‘Oh, no, he passes the threshold,’ ” Jeremiah said. “He can run. He’s got the ability to cover. He’s a firm tackler. Obviously, the forced fumbles are outrageous.”