The Pittsburgh Steelers closed the 2025 NFL Draft by picking Central Michigan’s cornerback/punt returner Donte Kent with their second 7th round selection and the 229th pick overall.
Pittsburgh Steelers 7th round pick Donte Kent. Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports
The speculation is that the Steelers will use Donte Kent mostly on special teams, but Mike Tomlin described him this way:
He has a Swiss Army Knife skill set. He’s capable of playing inside and out. He also added to his resume this year by proving to be a very capable punt returner, and I think that’s things that are attractive to you later in the draft, a guy that adds versatility in his game. So we’re excited about putting him in the mix.
Mike Tomlin his historically shied away from using defensive backs to return kicks, preferring to delegate those duties to running backs such as Mewelde Moore, Stefan Logan or wide receivers such as Antonio Brown, Diontae Johnson or Calvin Austin.
But Kent should at least get a shot at auditioning for the job during preseason. With that said, the last late round defensive back that Tomlin described as a “Swiss Army Knife” was Tre Norwood, whom the Steelers also drafted in the 7th round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Norwood saw action in 32 games during the 2021 and 2022 season, before getting cut in 2023.
