2025 NFL Draft Senior Bowl Steelers News
Second Position Emerges as Steelers Senior Bowl Favorite

MOBILE, Ala. — As practice started on the second day of work ahead of the 2025 Senior Bowl on Wednesday, a horn sounded and players shuffled off to their various position groups. The defensive line of the first-practicing National Team marched to the north end zone of Hancock-Whitney Stadium on the campus of South Alabama. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin followed.
Tomlin spent his second straight day with a heavy focus on the defensive line position. But the Steelers definitely have another spot they’re paying a lot of attention to.
Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith spent most of his day on Wednesday watching the group of wide receivers, and there are some intriguing fits for his offense among the group at the Senior Bowl at Mobile.
There isn’t a first-round wide receiver in this field. If that’s in the cards for the Steelers, it’ll likely be Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka or Texas’ Matthew Golden. Both players declined to participate after long runs in the College Football Playoff.
That could still happen, but if you go by the level of attention paid by the Steelers brass to prospects this week, it could very well be defensive tackle in the first round and wide receiver in the second.
There are several solid options among this group in Mobile.
Iowa State WR Jayden Higgins
Jayden Higgins — no relation to Tee — has the size at 6-foot-3 3/4 and 217 pounds. He also has the skills, as he’s been dominating Senior Bowl cornerbacks all week. Currently No. 76 on the NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board, Higgins could be a riser based on his productivity this week.
Higgins is big and strong and while not a burner, he’s certainly fast enough. He doesn’t have elite change of direction ability, but is a very fluid route-runner that seems to understand how one step sets up the next. There is some boom-or-bust here, but it feels like less of a project than his consensus pick might suggest.
TCU WR Jack Bech
Jack Bech checked in at the Senior Bowl at 6-foot-1 1/4 and 212 pounds, another solidly built wide receiver. Bech plated mostly outside at TCU, and he’ll have to prove that he can stick there at the NFL level. He has the size and the strength to perhaps be able to overcome press man coverage. Or he could be someone’s big slot in a heartbeat. The Steelers haven’t had a player like that since trading away Chase Claypool in 2022, but Arthur Smith has used one before.
Smith used the 6-foot-4 Mack Hollins in the slot and in a ton of condensed splits with the Atlanta Falcons in 2023. The jobs in Smith’s offense that Hollins was doing in then were mostly filled by Van Jefferson and Ben Skowronek in 2024. Bech would represent a shot at replacing those roles immediately with a player that has a lot more upside for the future.
After one strong catch of Wednesday, Tomlin came over to Bech — in the middle of a punt return drill — to dap him up and give him a pat on the back. So it wasn’t just Arthur Smith taking an interest in the receivers.
Maryland WR Tai Felton
Steelers fans, I’ll just get this out of the way first. Yes, Felton went to Maryland, where he was a teammate of Dino Tomlin, the son of the Steelers head coach. In fact, Felton told Steelers Now on Wednesday that Dino Tomlin was one of the older players that took him under their wing when he first got to College Park.
No, that isn’t the reason the Steelers will be interested.
Felton is good at a lot of the same things as Steelers wide receiver George Pickens. He’s fast, explosive, contorts his body to make ridiculous catches and has elite ball-tracking skills.
The problem is that Felton is much smaller at 6-foot 5/8 and 186 pounds. That doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker, but it does make Felton a bit of a question mark. He’s currently No. 108 on the NFL MDDB big board.
Utah State WR Jalen Royals
Jaylen Royals is not tall at 5-foot-11 3/8, but he’s a sturdy 210 pounds and he has a lot of functional strength behind that frame. He crossed the face of Kentucky DB Maxwell Hairston on Wednesday, taking the defensive back for a ride over the middle.
Royals is coming off a season-ending foot injury suffered in October that limited him to only seven game this year. He doesn’t look any worse for wear. He’s another player whose stock will likely rise with a strong week.
The Steelers don’t really have a player like Royals in their offense right now. He’s bigger and stronger than current slots Calvin Austin III and Roman Wilson. But he doesn’t really solve the problem of what to do alongside — or in place of — George Pickens, either.