Kaden Wetjen
Kaden Wetjen
Immediately regarded as the Steelers’ least popular draft pick, Kaden Wetjen earned himself some fans in their preseason debut. Though he gained little traction on special teams—which is why they drafted him—he made a splash on offense. Taking a catch-and-run slant 74 yards, he nearly scored for rookie QB Drew Allar. Later in the game, the duo did find the end zone.
I’m sure everybody predicted that Wetjen would have the second-most receiving yards in the AFC after one week of the preseason at 79, which is more than a third of his total receiving yardage during his entire NFL career. But that’s not even what got one coach excited about him. Special teams coordinator Danny Crossman had his eye on what he saw in the return game.
“I thought he made great decisions”, he said of Kaden Wetjen, via the Steelers’ website. “Obviously, we’re not game-planning in the preseason to take care of certain things. But I thought all of his decision-making, both in the kick return game, communication, punt return, trying to steal a couple field positions for us with the influences to get two touchbacks, saved about 30 yards of field position. We’re on the right track. When we start game-planning, obviously, we’ll be much improved. But nothing has changed in our thoughts of where we think he is and what he’s gonna be”.
Of course, it’s hard to be excited about Wetjen’s performance if you just look at the stat sheet. On three kick returns, he gained 61 yards, averaging 20.3 yards per return with a long of 25. He returned two punts, gaining 10 yards in total, averaging 5 yards per return. But as Crossman mentioned, he also helped influence the coverage to induce two touchbacks.
And he stressed that the Steelers were not game-planning in such a way that would be the case in a regular season game. Right now, it’s more about evaluating who will be playing in the regular season and less what they’ll do together. And despite the uninspiring statistics, Crossman saw a lot to like in how Wetjen handled the return duties.
Kaden Wetjen barely totaled 500 yards from scrimmage across three collegiate seasons, scoring three offensive touchdowns. But he scored six touchdowns on returns, four on punts and two on kickoffs. That’s why they drafted him in the fourth round. Despite how many reporters seem to want to view things, anything else is a bonus. It is a lot to invest in a return specialist, but not if he’s very good.
Of course, we don’t know if he’ll be very good yet, but