You’ve probably heard the story before. It’s draft weekend. And one prospect is positive where he’ll end up. A team giving false hope that yeah, you’re our guy, get ready my man. The pick comes. You get passed up. The phone rings and boom, it’s the last team you expected. Steven Nelson is one of those stories. To hear him tell it, prior to the 2015 draft, he was certain the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to call.
“It was a great time,” Nelson told Steelers.com’s Missi Matthews in a one-on-one interview. “Me and my family, we thought I was going to start here, I was going to come here. Coach Tomlin told me everything I wanted to hear. But you know, you never know how those things are going to go.”
But that idea quickly changed in Round Two when the team selected Senquez Golson. It’s possible Nelson would’ve still become a Steeler, the team double-dipped and took Doran Grant in the fourth round, but the Kansas City Chiefs nabbed him at 98 overall.
Nelson briefly talked about his visit back then though understandably, since it was years ago, didn’t remember all the details.
“It was Coach Tomlin, a few position coaches. I believe we went out to eat. They showed me around the facility, the weight room.”
Coming back now though, he feels like he belongs.
“It’s been amazing. As soon as I walk through the door, everybody just showed good respect. Everybody’s respectful, nice, welcoming me with open arms.”
He does have at least one friend already on the team, too. He knew Bud Dupree from their days growing up in Georgia, playing high school less than an hour from each other. And he’s already been shown plenty of that family environment on Twitter, receiving shoutouts from Joe Haden, Mike Hilton, among others.
