Bethel Park, WVU alum Nick Kwiatkoski embarks on 8th NFL season with Steelers

The first time Nick Kwiatkoski played a football game in what is now called Acrisure Stadium was 15 years so. He’s been back to play only once since. He’s in the right place that by September he can make it a third — plus several more.

Kwiatkoski led Bethel Park to the WPIAL Class AAAA football championship at then-Heinz Field in 2008. Now 30 years old, he’s taking part in Pittsburgh Steelers training camp as a reserve inside linebacker and special-teams standout.

“The Steelers, they’ve always had a good reputation around the league,” Kwiatkoski said from Saint Vincent College on Friday. “Then, being from Pittsburgh (is a plus in signing with the Steelers). Many things. When they called, I just felt like it was a great opportunity. And here we are.”

It took a lengthy detour, but Nick Kwiatkoski is poised to pull off a local football trifecta. https://t.co/MZ006xzQcF

— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) June 21, 2023

Kwiatkoski is an eight-year NFL veteran who played four seasons for the Chicago Bears, two for the Las Vegas Raiders and last season for the Atlanta Falcons. After being almost an every-down player for the Raiders in 2020, Kwiatkoski has mostly been deployed in a special teams role his past two NFL seasons.

So far during this camp, Kwiatkoski has been repping with the second or third team on defense, and he’s been regularly spotted with special teams coordinator Danny Smith’s groups since first joining the Steelers via a minicamp tryout.

“I’m just doing whatever it takes to make this team better,” Kwiatkoski said, “no matter where my role falls in and no matter what that is.”

Kwiatkoski has moved to Las Vegas fulltime now, but he still has family and friends in the area and spends plenty of time in Pittsburgh. That included this spring when he remained on the free agent market for almost three months before the Steelers inquired.

Kwiatkoski said he kept himself in football shape and never considered giving up the sport. That paid off when his hometown team called.

The Steelers revamped their entire inside linebackers corps over the offseason, signing veterans Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts to start and adding Tanner Muse in addition to Kwiatkoski. Mark Robinson is the lone returnee who played last season, and Chapelle Russell — a member of last year’s practice squad — also is part of the position room.

“Just being in this league, every training camp you get to attend as years get up here you have to appreciate them,” Kwiatkoski said. “So, I just feel very blessed to have the career I did — and hope to keep going.”

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