Head coach Mike Tomlin praised Eli Heidenreich on Tuesday, highlighting his natural instincts and positional flexibility. The seventh-round rookie out of Navy commands an intriguing dual RB/WR designation on the team’s official depth chart after averaging 6.8 yards per carry and 17.2 yards per reception during his final collegiate season.
While Heidenreich remains a long-shot for immediate fantasy relevance, his multi-phase versatility and 4.44 speed give him significant PPR appeal and has moved from watchlist candidate to must-draft in dynasty league rookie drafts.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have selected Navy running back ...
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted a satellite-plus weapon at No. 230 in Eli Heidenreich, who pairs a rock-solid 27.5 BMI with a 44.5% College Target Share (100th-percentile) that nearly breaks the standard prospect model. Heidenreich is a verified metric unicorn who averaged a massive 6.5 College Yards Per Carry while generating a dominant 18.5 Yards Per Reception at Navy, generating frequent comps to Christian McCaffrey.
For dynasty players, consider Heidenreich a late round flier that could be interesting should if there were to be some injuries in the Steelers’ backfield, particularly to Jaylen Warren.