THE PICK: Fourth Round (121st overall)<\/p>\n
THE PLAYER: Kaden Wetjen, WR, Iowa<\/p>\n
THE PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS: 5-foot-83\/4, 195 pounds<\/p>\n
THE PARTICULARS: Wetjen caught 23 passes for 197 yards and one touchdown in three seasons at Iowa (20 of his receptions, 151 of his receiving yards and his lone receiving TD were registered in 2025). He also carried the ball 23 times for 151 yards and one touchdown for the Hawkeyes. But it’s his elite ability as a punt and kickoff returner that has him headed to the NFL.<\/p>\n
Wetjen’s four career punt returns for touchdowns (three in 2025) and two career scores on kickoff returns put him on the NFL’s radar. No wonder he’s a two-time winner of the Jet Award (given annually to the nation’s top returner), the only two-time winner.<\/p>\n
Wetjen has a career average of 27.5 yards on kickoff returns and 17.7 yards on punt returns. The Steelers consider him a “major addition,” and a “high-level player,” according to special teams coordinator Danny Crossman. Wetjen thinks the Steelers can be “super dangerous” on punt and kickoff returns, particularly as tweaks to the dynamic kickoff procedure continue to be made with an eye toward encouraging more returns.<\/p>\n
Wetjen ran a 4.48 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis and has demonstrated a “catch-run-cut” approach Crossman appreciates, as well as an ability to play “fearlessly” but also “smart,” and with a determination to protect the football. Another Wetjen attribute Crossman referenced was familiarity and comfort performing in bad weather.<\/p>\n
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: NFL Draft analyst Dane Brugler of The Athletic: “Wetjen is a dynamic return man and scoring threat on every touch. Time will tell if he can graduate from gadget receiver to a more established role in an offense.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE PICK: Fourth Round (121st overall) THE PLAYER: Kaden Wetjen, WR, Iowa THE PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS: 5-foot-83\/4, 195 pounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[8305,262329,263923,831,399,264039,78256,398,396,397,23070,263823,14357,23071,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-607621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-draft","9":"tag-draft-central-2026-news","10":"tag-eli-heidenreich","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-gabe-rubio","14":"tag-kaden-wetjen","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-football","17":"tag-ncaafootball","18":"tag-non-sponsored","19":"tag-riley-nowakowski","20":"tag-robert-spears-jennings","21":"tag-sights-and-sounds","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}