Former Georgia RB Daijun Edwards hoping to follow Jaylen Warren as Steelers undrafted rookie

Now well established as an NFL running back, it wasn’t that long ago that Jaylen Warren was merely an undrafted rookie armed with just a modest low-five-figure signing bonus in his pocket, knowing he had plenty of work to do to buck the odds and make a name for himself with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

So when Daijun Edwards joined Warren’s position room six weeks ago, Warren couldn’t help but reminisce a bit.

“I do,” Warren said this past week, “see a lot of me in him.”

In 2022, Warren was signed as an undrafted rookie after coming off a highly productive senior season for a power-conference program.

This spring, it was Edwards coming off a college career of accolades playing for a high-profile program who signed with the Steelers as an undrafted rookie free agent.

Edwards strives to make his mark in the pros much like Warren has.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence I can play at this level,” Edwards said after a recent organized team activities session. “I feel like I am pretty good. I feel like I am up to it. I can play in the NFL.”

Warren admits he might not have carried that same level of confidence back two years ago, when he wasn’t even the player at his position on his team who received the biggest bonus check as an undrafted free agent. (Warren was paid $12,000 just after the 2022 draft; Mateo Durant of Duke earned a $15,000 bonus from the Steelers.)

Warren, who as a senior at Oklahoma State had rushed for 1,216 yards and 11 touchdowns, not only easily beat out Durant, he earned a spot on the 53-man roster as a rookie. And by Year 2, he was in an almost-even split with former first-round pick Najee Harris at the top of the Steelers’ running backs corps.

Edwards after this year’s draft was given an $18,000 bonus from the Steelers after coming off a career at the Georgia that included a pair of national championships, more than 2,000 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns.

“Nothing is too different,” Edwards said of early impressions of the NFL level compared to how things are run by an SEC powerhouse, “but everything is pretty detailed. Nothing really changed from what it is at Georgia, but everything is more detailed and more you have to have attention on.”

This past season, Edwards was the leading rusher (881 yards) and was second in touchdowns (13) for a Georgia team that spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the county but ended up falling just short of playing for a third consecutive College Football Playoff title. (The Bulldogs finished No. 3 in the polls.)

Edwards (5-foot-10, 201 pounds) was primarily a special teams player his first two seasons for Georgia, including when as a freshman Georgia won the Peach Bowl but was effectively eliminated from national title contention via an October loss to Alabama when Harris had 152 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Edwards recognizes that if he has any chance to make the 2024 Steelers as a complement to Harris, Warren and even veteran free-agent signee Cordarrelle Patterson that he will have to show proficiency on special teams.

“Really I am just trying to focus on doing my details, all the little things,” Edwards said. “That’s what is emphasized at this level. Doing every little thing you can the best you can, every single rep you take.”

Edwards has a willing and emphatic mentor in Warren.

“I was in that same situation,” Warren said from the practice fields. “(An undrafted rookie) is gonna come out here and make mistakes. I made my mistakes when I first came. I told him how my first pass to me here, I dropped it in the end zone … and (a veteran) told me, ‘Don’t drop passes,’ because he was an undrafted free agent too. I took that to heart. You really can’t mess up. So I shared what I went through.”

The odds stacked against him and well aware the burden is on him to prove he belongs, Edwards is confident he can do so.

“Really I am just going to come in and work and show what I can do,” Edwards said. “Try to show them that I can play special teams, I can be an any-down back. Doing whatever is needed.”