Steelers Hear Harsh Truth About Kaden Wetjen's Struggles

The Pittsburgh Steelers corrected a lot of issues in Week 5 as they found themselves triumphant, winning 34-22 over the Indianapolis Colts at home. The offense in particular had a phenomenal showing, as they put up their highest point total so far this season. However, one unit that has not figured out their struggles yet this year is their special teams group. Those struggles continued again on Sunday and a lot of blame has been put on rookie Kaden Wetjen. While the 2026 fourth-round pick has been underwhelming in the return game so far this year, the issue is not entirely on him.

During the most recent rounds of press conferences, new special teams coordinator Danny Crossman mentioned what has to change in order for his unit to get better. The Pittsburgh rookie had a great career at the University of Iowa, but has struggled so far in his first season in the NFL. Regardless of whether his special teams coordinator thinks there is progress, it is not translating into Sundays, which has become a big problem.

On Tuesday, team insider Nick Farabaugh hosted an episode of his Steelers Blitz podcast to discuss the win over Indianapolis and preview the upcoming contest on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During the episode, he was questioned about the Steelers rookie return specialist. While he does feel the player has struggled, he also sees a lot of the issues falling at the feet of his coordinator.

“The kick return unit, there aren’t great blocks, but Kaden Wetjen needs to run more north and south,” Farabaugh said. “That’s going to be one thing and he’s not making a lot of people miss. Let’s just state it bluntly, Kaden Wetjen has not been good through five weeks. The special teams unit has to get better as a cohesive unit. That falls really at the feet, when all these units are really poor like that, that falls at the feet of Danny Crossman.”  

Crossman was brought in after long-time special teams coordinator Danny Smith departed to join Tampa Bay. After losing that continuity, it is not a huge surprise that the unit has regressed so far through five weeks. However, they have to get better given that Wetjen has averaged just 9.9 yards on punt returns and 22.6 yards on kickoff returns.

In his senior season at Iowa, the former Hawkeye averaged 29.8 yards per return on kickoffs and a phenomenal 26.8 yards per return on punt returns. Those numbers helped him earn a consensus All-American award for his final collegiate season. He also won the Johnny "The Jet" Award in back-to-back seasons in his final two years, an award given to the best return specialist in the country in college. He became the first two-time winner of the award in its history.

Steelers Had To Be More Prepared To Grow Rookies In 2026

While the season is still early, they had to be aware that they were going to need to be able to help out its rookies, especially as they kept all of their rookies on the roster. However, to this point, Crossman is not living up to that responsibility given to the coaching staff. There are definitely going to be growing pains with a rookie, and after losing your long-time special teams coordinator, but the performance so far needs to improve soon.

While Wetjen himself absolutely has flaws in his game at the NFL level, this is also his first-ever game action in the league. Crossman, on the other hand, has been in the league since the 2003 NFL season and needs to get his return specialist going. The Steelers spent a pretty early pick on a guy that was brought in as a return specialist. While he was great in college, it has been a tough go of it to start, and his special teams coordinator needs to get him right so this pick does not turn into a regret.

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