Potential Steelers Draft Target T’Vondre Sweat Arrested for DWI

Potential Pittsburgh Steelers 2024 NFL Draft target T’Vondre Sweat was arrested and charged with DUI over the weekend in Texas.

The Texas Longhorns defensive tackle was arrested at 2:12 p.m. on Sunday by the Austin, Texas police department and was briefly booked into Travis County Jail on a charge of driving while intoxicated, a Class B misdemeanor. Sweat posted a bond of $3,000 and was released.

An All-American at defensive tackle, Sweat was the 2023 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. In 14 games with the Longhorns this season, Sweat set or tied career highs with 45 tackles, eight tackles for loss, two sacks and four passes defended.

In addition to his unanimous first-team All-American selection, Sweat won the Outland Trophy for the best interior lineman in college football, and was a semifinalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award and the Bednarik Award.

The Steelers scouted Sweat at the 2024 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. At the 2024 NFL Combine, Sweat checked in at 6-foot-4, 366 pounds. He tested poorly, running a 5.27-second 40-yard dash and posting a 26-inch vertical and an 8-foot-2 broad jump for a 4.27 overall Relative Athletic Score. He did not perform agility testing.

His limited athletic prowess likely that Sweat could exclusively be a nose tackle at the next level, something that may be of interest to the Steelers, but only to them and other teams that play a 3-4 base defense.

Sweat had been considered an early second-round pick for most of the 2024 NFL Draft process, but his arrest could drop his stock. Sweat’s average selection at NFL Mock Draft Database fell from 46th on April 1 to 53rd as of Monday morning.

That puts him firmly in consideration for the Steelers’ second pick of the draft at No. 51 in the second round, but the team has not shown a ton of interest in the big Texan. While the team met with Sweat in Mobile, they sent only wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni to the Texas Pro day and they did not have a reported formal meeting with Sweat at the combine.

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The Steelers do not need bodies at defensive tackle, as they have lost just one player from their 2023 group, and replaced the departing Armon Watts with free agent signing Dean Lowry. But they do have a future need, as captain Cam Heyward is entering the final year of his contract and Lowry and Larry Ogunjobi will both be turning 30 this season.