Steelers OTA Riser: Rookie Kaden Wetjen

Kaden Wetjen Quick Hits

• Back-to-back Big Ten Return Specialist of the Year honors in 2024 and 2025.
• Two-time Jet Award winner as the nation’s top return specialist.
• Led the FBS in combined return yards in consecutive seasons with 2,094 total yards.
• Set a school record with six career kick/punt return touchdowns.
• Former Iowa Western standout who rose from walk-on redshirt to one of college football’s most dangerous return weapons.

OTAs are underway on the Southside and while large portions of Steelers practices remain guarded from public consumption, certain observations still manage to cut through the controlled environment.

Rookie Kaden Wetjen was one of them.

In the simplest terms, the young receiver looked productive. A crisp and active afternoon where No. 10 consistently found himself around the football and difficult to overlook.

“Yeah, it’s pretty surreal,” Wetjen said after practice. “And even catching it from some of some of the older guys, like Aaron Rodgers, I played with him on video games when I was younger, so catching a ball from him was that was probably one of the crazier things that I that I ever experienced, right? On, but just being with all the older guys has been so surreal, and it’s been a great experience.”

Wetjen didn’t arrive in Pittsburgh as an unknown developmental flier. The former Iowa standout built one of the most decorated special teams résumés in recent college football history while steadily expanding his role offensively.

Can Wetjen Become More Than a Returner

A Consensus All-American, Wetjen earned first-team All-America honors from Walter Camp, AFCA, Sporting News, FWAA, USA Today, On3 and PFF, while also collecting second-team recognition from The Athletic. Most notably, he captured the Rodgers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year award for the second consecutive season, becoming the first player since the award’s creation in 2015 to win it twice.

Over the course of his career at Iowa, Wetjen developed into one of the nation’s premier return threats, producing explosive plays as both a punt and kick returner while continuing to evolve as a receiver. That offensive growth became increasingly evident during his final season with the Hawkeyes and was something the Steelers clearly identified long before draft weekend.

That vision only sharpens now sharing a huddle with Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers carries a gravitational pull inside the building that reaches beyond his Hall of Fame résumé. Even veteran players gravitate toward his command of the offense, obsessive attention to detail and ability to process the game at an entirely different speed. For a rookie like Wetjen, simply hearing the cadence and operation of the offense in real time has become an education of its own.

“Even in the huddle, yeah, like just listening to call the plays, I’m like, what the hell,” Wetjen said of Rodgers. “He’s just, it’s just super, super crazy and surreal, but it’s been amazing.

Steelers Envision Wetjen in Offense

We’ve had a couple conversations already, and it just helped me. I mean, just getting his words of wisdom helps you so much, and especially getting it from the QBs viewpoint is just super helpful. It’s been a great, great relationship so far, and I’m sure it’ll, it’ll just keep building.”

Wetjen noted the Steelers’ interest in him extended well beyond special teams production. During meetings at the NFL Combine, Pittsburgh made it clear they viewed him as a player capable of continuing to grow offensively rather than being boxed into a return-only role.

“I think, just the offensive aspect,” Wetjen said. “I know I was used a lot more last year than I was the previous years, but I think there’s still a lot left out there for receiver, and I think that, like, we even talked when I was at the combine, having an interview with them, that’s kind of one of the things they saw me growing into.”

The confidence is there, even if Wetjen still delivers it with a grin about his college return tape.

“I hope I’ve shown enough,” Wetjen laughed.

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