{"id":13813,"date":"2025-05-01T00:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T00:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/13813\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T00:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T00:13:11","slug":"iowa-football-rb-kaleb-johnson-to-pittsburgh-steelers-among-espns-best-nfl-draft-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/13813\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa football RB Kaleb Johnson to Pittsburgh Steelers among ESPN&#8217;s best NFL draft picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/hawkeyeswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Iowa Hawkeyes;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Iowa Hawkeyes<\/a> running back Kaleb Johnson knows a thing or two about uplifting an offense in a hurry. Last year, the 2024 Big Ten Running Back of the Year and All-American put together a historic season in <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/iowa-hawkeyes\/3434\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Iowa;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Iowa<\/a> City on his way to becoming a 2025 NFL Draft pick.<\/p>\n<p>Selected by the <a href=\"https:\/\/steelerswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pittsburgh Steelers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> in the third round, Kaleb Johnson joining the Steel City has been <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/pittsburgh-steelers-crush-nfl-draft-124630870.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:drawing strong grades from the jump.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">drawing strong grades from the jump.<\/a> The case is no different from ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>ESPN has put <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/draft2025\/insider\/story\/_\/id\/44907262\/2025-nfl-draft-ranking-top-100-picks-best-steals-team-fits-trades\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the Steelers&#039; selection of Kaleb Johnson among the best picks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">the Steelers&#8217; selection of Kaleb Johnson among the best picks<\/a> of the entire draft.<\/p>\n<p>My\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/draft2025\/insider\/story\/_\/id\/41981985\/2025-nfl-draft-rankings-matt-miller-top-prospects-players-positions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:final overall ranking;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">final overall ranking<\/a>:\u00a0No. 44<\/p>\n<p>One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking about the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/pittsburgh-steelers\/356\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Steelers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Steelers<\/a> is powerful, physical backs who run downhill. Johnson punished defenses at Iowa (and also excelled on outside zone carries). And Pittsburgh got him 39 spots lower than where I ranked him. &#8211; Matt Miller, ESPN<\/p>\n<p>The pick is strong for a multitude of reasons. The first being that the Steelers were able to land a running back who can turn back the clock a little bit and be the old-school workhorse that can run downhill and wear down defenses. Johnson isn&#8217;t afraid of contact and tough yards.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, Johnson was one of the top running backs in all of college football during the 2024-25 season. The value Pittsburgh got by drafting an instant starter in the third round is unmatched.<\/p>\n<p>Contact\/Follow us\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/hawkeyeswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@HawkeyesWire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@HawkeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hawkeyeswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions.\u00a0Follow Riley on X:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rileydonald7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@rileydonald7;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@rileydonald7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/hawkeyeswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/hawkeyes\/football\/2025\/04\/30\/nfl-draft-best-picks-pittsburgh-steelers-kaleb-johnson-iowa-football\/83374926007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pittsburgh Steelers drafting Iowa football RB Kaleb Johnson commended;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Pittsburgh Steelers drafting Iowa football RB Kaleb Johnson commended<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Iowa Hawkeyes running back Kaleb Johnson knows a thing or two about uplifting an offense in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[12,7,1286,274,7337,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-13813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-espn","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-iowa-hawkeyes","11":"tag-kaleb-johnson","12":"tag-matt-miller","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","17":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114429690294937703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}