Who is Kaleb Johnson?
The Pittsburgh Steelers selected running back Kaleb Johnson out of Iowa with their third round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Kaleb Johnson story:
Kaleb Johnson was born August 14, 2003 in Cincinnati Ohio.
Johnson attended Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Ohio. He was rated as a three-star recruit and the 36th overall running back in the country during the class of 2022. He received offers from California, Cincinnati, Michigan, Michigan State, Pitt, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, West Virginia, Ball State, Kent State, Liberty, Marshall, Miami University, Toledo, Western Michigan, and Eastern Kentucky.
Originally, Johnson committed to play college football for the California Golden Bears, but decided to flip and commit to play for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
In his freshman season in 2022, Johnson had 151 carries for 779 yards and six touchdowns.
During the 2023 season, Johnson played in 10 games and ran for 463 yards on 117 attempts.
Last season everything came together for Johnson as a running back. In 12 games, he had 240 carries for 1,537 yards and 21 touchdowns. He also caught 22 passes for 188 yards and two more scores.
RB-Kaleb Johnson, Iowa
6’1” 224 lbs
Arm- 33”
Hand- 9 ⅝”
40- 4.57
10-yard split- 1.62 seconds
Strengths
-Gets better with more touches
-Active feet help him to navigate and cut through open holes
-Athletic and physical body build
-Explosive to the line of scrimmage
-Has excellent vision and toughness, should compute to the NFL.
Weaknesses
-Average speed, not going to out run a secondary
-Not the most polished pass catcher out of the backfield
-Pass protection needs improvement
-Tends to run upright at times
-What do the Steelers get?
Pittsburgh lost Najee Harris to free agency and will now have a combination of Kaleb Johnson and Jaylen Warren in their backfield for 2025. Kaleb Johnson should be a nice change of pace and has proven over his college career that he can be a workhorse if needed.
Welcome to Pittsburgh Kaleb Johnson!
(photo courtesy of Hawkeye Beacon)