Spencer Wagen / 1600 ESPN
The NFL Draft is in the books for another season, and if you are a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes or Iowa State Cyclones, you may have a new favorite pro team to follow thanks to this year’s draft.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are already the favorite NFL team of many a Hawkeye fan, due in large part to the very similar color scheme, but thanks to this year’s draft additions, more and more fans of the Hawks may be tuning in to what happens in the Steel City. All told, the Steelers added three former Iowa players to their roster. Pittsburgh drafted star running back Kaleb Johnson in the third round, then added defensive lineman Yaha Black in the fifth round and nabbed hard-hitting safety Sebastian Castro as an undrafted free agent.
These former Hawkeyes, and really the draft class as a whole, fill a big need for the Steelers, according to their head coach Mike Tomlin — physicality. “There’s a commitment here with this draft group to reestablish physicality and big-man presence,” Tomlin told the NFL Network in an interview during the draft. With a power runner like Johnson and a big man in the middle like Black, they certainly will be getting that out of the former Hawkeyes on their team. Add to that their first round pick Derrick Harmon out of Oregon and national champion linebacker Jack Sawyer from Ohio State, and the Steelers added quite a bit of talent, and yes, physicality, to their team in 2025.
For Iowa State fans, it has to be tough to choose where your NFL allegiances lie, especially if you’re following former Cyclones at the next level.
For the last few years the New York Jets have been referred to as the “New York Cyclones” for having a sizable group of former Iowa State players on their team, but now it looks like the Houston Texans are giving the Jets a run for their money. That’s after Houston used a pair of picks on day two to draft both Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel to their team. I was a little surprised to see the Texans draft both ISU receivers, but when you look at the production the two combined for at Iowa State, I can see why any NFL front office would be impressed. The duo each recorded over 1,000 yards receiving in their senior year and were an integral part of the Cyclones’ success in 2024.
Houston has some recent history with Cyclone receivers to go off of that may help them in how to work both Higgins and Noel into their offense. The Texans drafted former ISU wideout Xavier Hutchinson in the sixth round in 2023, and his production has steadily increased in the last two seasons. This year’s duo may bring higher expectations with them since they were higher draft picks, but there’s no question all three former Cyclones will have an opportunity to make an impact for the team this season and beyond.
Speaking of Houston, Higgins and Noel weren’t the only players with Iowa ties to get drafted to the team. The Texans used a seventh round pick to draft former Hawkeyes tight end Luke Lachey. Will Lachey be the next “great” to come out of “Tight End U?” Only time will tell, of course, but at this point I don’t know how a team can pass on a tight end that came out of the Iowa program.
The draft is over, and football season is still a ways away, but there are always plenty of storylines to follow in the offseason. Like many of you, I’ll be following all the players with ties to our Iowa schools to see their path to the pros unfold.
Spencer Wagen is the host of “Spencer on Sports,” weekdays from 4-6 p.m. on 1600 ESPN. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @SWOnTheRadio.
