{"id":615588,"date":"2026-04-30T16:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/615588\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T16:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:46:13","slug":"kaden-wetjen-has-chance-to-make-steelers-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/615588\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaden Wetjen Has Chance To Make Steelers History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Iowa\u2019s Kaden Wetjen for one primary purpose: be the team\u2019s new and dynamic kick and punt returner. if Wetjen can have half the NFL success he did in college, he\u2019ll be a fantastic Day 3 pick.<\/a> He\u2019ll also make team history.<\/p>\n

In a stat that surprised even me after I went hunting for it, the Steelers have never\u00a0had a player return a kick and punt for a touchdown in the same regular season. Over the years, I assumed Lynn Chandnois, Louis Lipps, Rod Woodson, Antwaan Randle El, Antonio Brown, someone\u00a0would\u2019ve done so. No Steeler ever has.<\/p>\n

For the NFL at large, it\u2019s an uncommon-but frequent-enough occurrence. Since the 1970 merger, 49 players have done it. Devin Hester has the record after achieving it three separate times: 2006, 2007, and 2011. It\u2019s why he\u2019s regarded as the greatest returner in history.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also happened again recently and been revived thanks to the league\u2019s new kickoff rules implemented in 2024. In 2024, Dallas\u2019 Kavonte Turpin did it. Last year, Rashid Shaheed achieved it after being traded to the Seattle Seahawks (not to mention his Divisional Round score<\/a> against San Francisco). Mike McCarthy is probably betting on Wetjen becoming his version of Turpin.<\/p>\n

So returns are back. As is renewed hope Wetjen can do what Pittsburgh\u2019s never done before.<\/p>\n

Will he do it? The Steelers can only hope. Wetjen was electric at Iowa with four career punt-return touchdowns and two more on kicks, including four total return touchdowns in 2025. The NFL is a different landscape with its own set of unique rules. College football still uses the \u201cold\u201d model.<\/p>\n

If Wetjen can run back one kick and one punt, he\u2019ll justify his value as a fourth-round pick. Odds of winning skyrocket when a team has a return of any sort (special teams or defense) for a touchdown. Over the past two years, such teams are 95-35, a .731 winning percentage. Teams that don\u2019t sport a 448-508-2 mark, a win percentage that plummets to .469.<\/p>\n

Returning a kick or punt for a touchdown this season will be notable enough. Especially a kick. Pittsburgh hasn\u2019t done it since a rookie\u00a0JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2017.<\/a> It Wetjen does both, he\u2019ll put himself in the history books that no other Steeler may repeat for years. Unless, of course, Wetjen does it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Iowa\u2019s Kaden Wetjen for one primary purpose: be the team\u2019s new and dynamic kick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,85285,78256,398,396,397,1321,99],"class_list":["post-615588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-juju-smith-schuster","tag-kaden-wetjen","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615588","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=615588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}