by Bo Marchionte
@bomarchionte | College2Pro.com
Published August 19, 2026, 4:31 PM
Kaden Wetjen Was Pissed He Got Caught. The Next Morning Explained Why.
Pittsburgh, PA – Kaden Wetjen knew something wasn’t right.
He just didn’t know what.
The Steelers rookie had the football, open grass and an opportunity to turn a catch into six. Seventy-four yards later, Wetjen had produced one of Pittsburgh’s biggest plays of the preseason and somehow wasn’t particularly interested in celebrating it.
He was pissed.
Not because the play failed. Quite the opposite. Wetjen had taken Drew Allar’s completion and turned it into a 74-yard gain with the kind of acceleration and open-field ability that made Pittsburgh spend a fourth-round pick on the former Iowa playmaker.
Wetjen was pissed because somebody caught him.
“Well, I was kind of pissed off because I don’t know why I was stumbling,” Wetjen said. “I’m like, why the hell am I like, I thought I was gonna fall on my face after 15 yards.”
That is where this gets interesting.
Wetjen didn’t immediately recognize that he had injured his ankle during the play. Adrenaline carried him through it. His body was telling him something was wrong; his brain was still trying to figure out why his stride suddenly wasn’t cooperating.
“So, I’m honestly happy I made it that far because I don’t know what was happening there,” Wetjen said. “I just thought I was gonna fall over, but we made it further.”
The answer arrived the following morning.
“I actually twisted my ankle,” Wetjen said. “I woke up pretty sore the next morning, but it was a good night for sure.”
His family had been at the game, and Wetjen spent time with them afterward. Only when the adrenaline disappeared and the ankle stiffened did the 74-yard play begin making more sense.
The sequence also adds some context to Mike McCarthy’s reaction afterward.
McCarthy wasn’t interested in handing out style points for 74 yards. His evaluation went directly to the six yards Wetjen didn’t get.
“You know, he needs to get it in the end zone,” McCarthy said. “And that’s the kind of player we viewed him as when we drafted him out of Iowa.”
That’s coaching, but it’s also revealing.
McCarthy’s expectation wasn’t simply that Wetjen make the catch or generate explosive yardage. Pittsburgh drafted his speed with the expectation that it would finish plays. Once Wetjen gets into space, the standard changes from winning the rep to eliminating pursuit angles and turning explosives into touchdowns.
Wetjen later saw a clip of McCarthy’s comments.
“I hold myself to high standards,” Wetjen said. “I thought I should have scored. So completely agree with what he said there.”
That might be the most important part of the entire sequence.
Wetjen provides a calm demeanor. It stems from being prepared and ready for his next opportunity. When asking him if he slept well the night before the preseason game his response was what I expected.
Calm and cool.
“I mean, I’m not a guy who really gets nervous personally, and it’s like I’ve always been taught: if you’re prepared, there’s really no need to be nervous.”
Like I, the young man is calm and cool.
Kaden Wetjen, Iowa Career Highlights
- Two-Time Jet Award Winner: 2024 & 2025, honoring college football’s top return specialist.
- 2025 Consensus All-American
- Two-Time Big Ten Return Specialist of the Year: 2024 & 2025
- Two-Time First-Team All-Big Ten: 2024 & 2025
- 2025 NCAA Leader: 1,039 combined kick-return yards
- 2025 NCAA Leader: 26.8 yards per punt return an NCAA Division I single-season record
- 2025 Iowa Stats: Three punt-return TDs and one kickoff-return TD
Photo Credit Frank Hyatt/College2Pro.com
