Despite historically not spending as much as other teams do on undrafted free agents, the Pittsburgh Steelers landed quite a class of players who didn’t hear their name called in the 2025 NFL Draft.
One of the gems the Steelers landed shortly after the conclusion of the draft was Iowa safety Sebastian Castro. He has the look of a guy who could force his way onto the roster in the Steel City due to his versatility, football IQ and toughness.
For Pro Football Focus’ Ben Cooper, Castro is the top player to watch among Steelers UDFAs this offseason.
“The Steelers’ defensive cornerstones are locked in — T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward and Minkah Fitzpatrick among them — but the unit still has room for younger players to step up in the secondary,” Cooper writes regarding Castro as the UDFA to watch. “After posting the third-best PFF overall grade (91.2) among college football cornerbacks in 2023, Castro endured some regression in 2024. He allowed five touchdowns in coverage this past season after surrendering just three in the previous three years combined.
“But if Castro can do enough this offseason to make the roster, his ceiling would give the Steelers a valuable piece at box safety.”
Castro is joining a safety room that is pretty deep on paper, featuring Minkah Fitzpatrick, DeShon Elliott, Juan Thornhill and Miles Killebrew, but there’s an opportunity there for Castro as that versatile piece who can move all over and wear many hats defensively.
He did just that at Iowa. Castro was a three-year starter on a great defense, and was quite productive, too. In 53 career games at Iowa, Castro had 163 career tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, 4 interceptions, 1 touchdown, 14 passes defensed and five forced fumbles. He played in the slot, in the box, and in a deep safety role with the Hawkeyes.
But below-average testing numbers at the position — 4.59 40-yard dash, 9’9″ broad jump, 30.5-inch vertical — caused him to fall out of the draft.
That worked out well for the Steelers, landing him as a UDFA and giving him a real opportunity to carve out a role. If he does, the Steelers should have a valuable piece as a box safety moving forward, giving Pittsburgh a player to develop while also getting some special teams contributions out of him, too.
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