Welcome to the Steelers Eli Heidenreich

He's a poor man's CMC. The kid does everything and does it well.

He's not big, but he has some juice. I am certainly rooting for him.

 

Does anyone know why he was in the draft room? Has he been in the draft room since round 1?

 

We then does both. He had two kick return scores at Iowa. Idc what position the returner plays, we need someone that can be dangerous at all back there. We haven’t gotten much in the return game for a while

 

Yep, that was my question.... Why is he there all dressed up waiting???

 

It’s not a “fake” pick, whatever that means… but I can agree that the NFL likely invited him to the green room in case he did to make a good story of it. Heidenreich is a hometown guy and a service member, so inviting him to the green room day three made sense. Getting drafted to any team in his home town would’ve been a cool story… just so happens it was even better getting picked up by the Steelers.

Apparently he already had committed to a team as a UDFA, so I doubt he had knowledge he was getting drafted for sure. The NFL likely didn’t “stage” the pick or force us to take him, but they definitely invited him hoping he’d get drafted and have the cameras on him when he walked to the stage.

 

Idgaf what you think

 

Maybe because he's from Pittsburgh.

Maybe it's because this is a once in a lifetime chance to experience the draft that he is hoping to be a part of and in his home city.

He is talented enough to be drafted, so maybe he wanted to experience all of it and he was proud to wear his uniform and represent the Navy and his hometown team, while being able to celebrate and soak it all in if was selected by any team.

I don't really care about the conspiracy theories about why he was at the draft. The kid had every right to be there and I couldn't be happier for him for getting drafted by the Steelers.

 

Not saying it's fake pick. but that's the only pkayer invited on day 3?, seems kinda strange. publicity stunt for both Steelers and NFL if it's true

 

Heidenreich was extended the rare opportunity to sit backstage, in the green room, for the final two days of this year’s draft. Typically, such accommodations are only offered to players projected to go in the first round. But his story led the NFL to make an exception.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...denreich-mt-lebanon-navy/stories/202604250001

 

He had already committed as an undrafted free agent with another team until the Steelers called.

https://steelersdepot.com/2026/04/e...her-team-as-udfa-before-steelers-drafted-him/

 

Steelers may have picked him just to make sure he didn’t sit there and not get picked

Pittsburgh kid military……

If so it was a class move

 

It is definitely a publicity thing to invite him in case he gets drafted. I highly doubt that we took him just to have a good story for the NFL. Keep in mind that Heidenreich was considered a draft-able prospect (and I’ve seen him as high as 6th round in some of the idiot draft sites), so it’s not a huge shock he got picked. The NFL wanted a service member walking down the corridor and putting on a hat… I’ll agree there. Though there’s zero chance we used draft capital on a player just for a feel good story. That would be ridiculous.

 

Glad they drafted him. He's a unique player.

 

and not once did the media cover it or it got mentioned during the draft untill he was picked... still seems wrong to me but good for him for getting doing somthing he dreamed of doing

 

You guys and your pesky facts and actual information.

This is a Steelers message board, we run solely on feelings and half-cocked hot takes.

All gas. No brakes.

 

Now that I harassed @Brice on another post about reading the name wrong

I keeping seeing this name as Heinrich

 

Nope

 

That gets dangerous pretty quickly.

Dude sounds like a Hogan's Heroes character.

 

The NFL invited him to come to the draft today and he's from the area.

 

Only for day 3

 

https://x.com/NFL/status/2048161859878990268?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^2048161859878990268|twgr^686bb609191a50777d006023d471bc659638b3bb|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://steelersdepot.com/2026/04/watch-eli-heidenreich-gets-emotional-walking-draft-stage-after-joining-hometown-steelers/

Kid really wanted to be here. And it certainly doesn't look like he's the only person in the room. One kid in the background is wearing a Dolphins cap.

 

I already posted this aren’t you paying attention

 

Which part?