During the bonus minicamp the Steelers were alotted prior to the draft, new coach Mike McCarthy called his inherited defensive line "the biggest defensive line I've ever coached, and I think they look exactly how you're supposed to look."
The members of the group not named Cam Heyward (6-5, 295) included Keeanu Benton (6-4, 309), Derrick Harmon (6-4, 313), and Yahya Black (6-5, 336) -- all 24 years old and younger. The Steelers also signed 31-year-old Sebastian Joseph-Day (6-4, 316) in free agency and would soon re-sign 32-year-old Dean Lowry (6-6, 296).
But McCarthy, apparently, wants the group to become even bigger, and deeper, so a week later, in the sixth round, he and the Steelers drafted Gabriel Rubio, a 6-5, 321-pound defensive tackle out of Notre Dame, an underutilized giant with natural football instincts by way of genetics.
"You watch the way he plays, and you look at his skill set, he's a Pittsburgh Steeler defensive lineman," McCarthy said. "I think he's an outstanding fit for the 3-4. I thought that was a no-brainer pick right there."
McCarthy, of course, grew up in Pittsburgh as a Steelers fan, so he knew the Rubio family history. Gabriel's father, Angel Rubio, had been drafted by the Steelers in 1998.
"Eleven picks later," McCarthy correctly answered without looking it up.
Angel came out of Southeast Missouri State and spent parts of two seasons in the NFL before spending six seasons in the XFL and Arena Football League. Gabriel was born in St. Louis during his father's football odyssey and grew into an elite college prospect who chose Notre Dame over Georgia, LSU, Louisville, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M, among others. It all came together in the form of perfect guidance by a football-playing father who wanted his son to have a better opportunity than he did.
But Gabriel wasn't forced down this path.
"No, not at all," young Rubio said during this year's Steelers minicamp. "He understood that it was my own journey, that I was going to go play elsewhere, be something else than he was. He had his own path, and I think he tried to push me in THAT direction.
"The reason why I chose Notre Dame," Rubio continued, "I had a really good connection with the coach there, Mike Elston. He's now with the Chargers. Really grew a relationship with him when I was being recruited, saw the camaraderie, saw the brotherhood that they established there, and just the tradition of how they are able to play high-level football year in and year out."
Rubio played in one game -- the Fiesta Bowl -- as a redshirt freshman at Notre Dame in 2021, and then played in 12 games in 2022. In 2023, he missed three games with a knee injury but finished strong and had high expectations for 2024, and beyond. But a fractured foot during 2024 training camp cost him five games. He returned to the lineup as a starter and in the four-game college playoffs recorded 12 tackles.
In 2025, Rubio was considered Notre Dame's "second-best defender" behind cornerback Leonard Moore when he was injured again in mid-October. Rubio called it "a broken elbow" when he tore a ligament that required surgery. Irish Sports Daily wrote up his loss this way: "Losing one of your best run stoppers up the middle is not a good thing for Notre Dame, as Rubio has really taken a a big step in the last month."
Rubio didn't return to action, wasn't invited to the NFL Combine, and seemed relegated to the heap of college football players who coulda been somebody had it not been for injuries. But the Steelers had some inside help.
"One of my buddies there," was how new Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham first heard of Rubio. "Just in terms of the size, the length, he's really just intriguing. In terms of a big man up front, (he) really fits what we're trying to do. Does a good job of defeating blocks, hard to single-block, and the way he plays. He plays football the right way, has the right demeanor. And his ability to play the run and then transition on early-down run to pass and play action using his length, you can see there's a savviness about him in terms of feeling different weight distributions and being able to transition into play-action pass.
"So, really excited about that. Anytime you're talking about a stout, big, long man playing on the interior D-line, I think that fits the mold of what we're looking for here with the Steelers."
So, in the sixth round, Rubio was added to a group that can never be big or deep enough.
Of course, the bloodlines didn't hurt.
"My earliest memory was my dad sitting me down in the living room through some old teaching tape of him when he was back in college doing all these drills," Rubio told Irish Sports Daily. "At the time I had no clue what they were for. As I've grown as a player and as a person, I can see the drills he was doing were similar to the drills we're doing right now. So very little has changed in that regard. Technique has always been a big emphasis whenever I was learning."
And so, 38 years later, Gabriel was drafted by the Steelers 11 picks earlier than his nose tackle of a father.
"He's ecstatic," Rubio said of dad on draft day. "He's so excited for me. He's giving me all the pointers right now about living in Pittsburgh and what's going to go on, what's going to happen, so I'm really counting on his guidance."
The younger Rubio has played nose tackle, but at Notre Dame the 6-5, 321-pounder played all of the interior positions, from head-up over the nose to what's known as the 4i technique, the technique normally played by Heyward.
Graham was hesitatant to name a specific position for Rubio.
"Everybody gets stuck on one position," said Graham. "At this point, the more positions they can play, the better off they'll be. But he has length and size and he's stout. ... He's an interior defensive lineman, and we'll see what is the best fit for him, technique wise, in terms of our alignment. But I mean, he's a solid football player."
In the spring, Rubio was worked primarily as a reserve 3-technique tackle (aligned on the outside foot of the offensive guard) and over the nose, with a splash of 5-technique (outside foot of the tackle).
"They LOVE violence," Rubio said of what his coaches like and don't like about his play. "They love everything that I knew coming in. They love that; so, violence, tenacity. They love the effort. The motor, that's a given.
"Things that I need to work on? Just need to keep processing the speed of the game. From when the ball is snapped to when the whistle is over, getting everything in that those whistles nailed down. So, like, hands, eyes, feet, yeah, job's not a question. I know what my job is."
"The key is to have versatility," said Graham. "You think about 6-5 with some length; I'm thinking about, 'What's his role on fourth down?' Now you're talking about PAT block. That's all stuff that you could talk to daily about, but that's where my mind goes: Where are the multiple roles for this big body? He fits
the mold for that."
Gabriel Rubio after a Notre Dame win (Photo: Danny Wild, USA TODAY Sports)