From Dairyland to the Steel City, Steelers gravitate toward Wisconsin defenders

What’s next, fans donning cheeseheads during “Renegade?” A side of curds with your Primanti Bros. sandwich?

The pipeline from Wisconsin to Pittsburgh — at least, to the Steelers — has become so ubiquitous, anything’s possible.

“Sometimes,” coach Mike Tomlin said, “a place like Wisconsin is a stylistic match.”

Steelers management sure seems to think so after taking a pair of former Badgers among their seven picks in last week’s draft. That makes three former University of Wisconsin players selected by the Steelers over the past three drafts, and four over the past seven, counting their current best player, T.J. Watt.

The addition of Keeanu Benton and Nick Herbig raises the total of former Badgers on the Steelers spring roster to five, making Wisconsin the program that has produced more current Steelers than anyone. All five are on defense.

From Tomlin to his assistants to the bevy of players who made transition from America’s Dairyland to the Steel City, it’s clear the connection is not a coincidence. There have been similarities in recent years — especially, defensively — between how Wisconsin ran its scheme and what the Steelers like to do.

“I think it’s always easier when you see a guy do the things you want,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said, referencing how Wisconsin defenders are often being asked to perform the same concepts Steelers coaches ask of their players. “There’s always less of a projection and more of a certainty, so to say, about what he can do.”

Steelers DC Teryl Austin on second-round pick DL Keeanu Benton of Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/YoaEuawnN4

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) April 29, 2023

There’s a list of general traits Wisconsin had gravitated toward in recruiting and developing players over the past decade, and that profile fits what the Steelers are looking for.

“He’s going to be tough, he’s going to be physical, he’s going to give you everything he has,” Austin said of ex-Badgers on defense. “So I think there is a comfort level, obviously, in that.”

The courting between the Steelers and both Benton (a defensive tackle taken in the second round) and Herbig (an outside linebacker drafted in Round 4) dates back more than a year.

Benton consulted with Steelers scouts while he was considering declaring for the draft after his 2021 junior season. And after Herbig was drafted, video surfaced of Watt providing tutelage to him during Wisconsin’s 2022 Pro Day.

A year ago - TJ Watt visited the Wisconsin #Badgers pro day.

I captured this video of Watt working with Nick Herbig off to the side.

Watt and Herbig are now teammates on the Pittsburgh #Steelers. pic.twitter.com/GLJifUYGSX

— Kyle Malzhan (@KyleMalzhan) April 29, 2023

Now, Herbig can learn daily from Watt — a tactician at the craft of rushing off the edge — as well as fraternize with the likes of his good friend Benton and other former Wisconsin teammates Isaiahh Loudermilk and Scott Nelson. Loudermilk is a defensive lineman the Steelers aggressively sought in the 2021 draft, and Nelson is a safety who signed to the Steelers practice squad as a rookie last season.

“I think they’ll take me under their wing like they already have,” Herbig said.

“Now that we’re all going to be together, I think it’ll make the process a lot easier.”

The NFL pipeline from Madison, Wisc., to Pittsburgh might be on the verge of drying up, however. Last fall, Paul Chryst (the former Pitt coach) was fired during his eighth season, and interim coach, former defensive coordinator and Wisconsin alum Jim Leonhard was not retained when the university hired Luke Fickell as coach.

What’s more telling about the possible end of the prototypical “Wisconsin player” the Steelers seem to gravitate toward is Fickell hired an offensive coordinator, Phil Longo, who is installing an “Air Raid”-style scheme in Madison — a far cry from the ground-and-pound the Badgers have been so known for. New defensive coordinator Mike Tressel’s approach isn’t that radically different from what Leonhard did, but it’s fair to wonder if the Steelers will be quite as enamored with Wisconsin alums in future drafts.

No matter. They are now. The proof is in their selections.

“They have a kind of similar set to us at Wisconsin,” Benton said of the Steelers, “and I’m just happy to get it started.”

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