If you’re talented, the NFL will find you. Minnesota-Duluth offensive lineman Aiden Williams is just the latest example. Going from Division II to the 2025 East/West Shrine Bowl, Williams got to play on the big stage with all 32 teams in attendance, catching the Pittsburgh Steelers’ eye along the way.
In an interview with Draft Network’s Justin Melo, Williams said the Steelers were among the top teams to show interest.
“There were a handful of teams I had met with previously at UMD, ones I really got talking to like the Eagles, Steelers, and Saints, just to name a few,” Williams told Melo. “There were a lot of teams showing interest.”
Those comments indicate the Steelers met with Williams on campus during the 2024 season. Part of an area scout’s responsibility is to travel and visit schools during the year, often attending practice to talk with players, coaches and support staff, but it’s notable when a scout stops at a small school to primarily learn about one prospect.
Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Williams made his way to Minnesota-Duluth in 2019. His college career got off to a slow start, redshirted in 2019 before his 2020 season was cancelled by the COVID pandemic. It took until 2022 for him to crack the starting lineup, named second-team all-conference in in 2022 and 2023 before making the first-team list in 2024.
He told Melo that teams see him as a guard/center after mixing between guard and tackle at the college level. He lacks length but not size, weighing in at 6055, 314 pounds at the Shrine Bowl.
Now, Williams will hope to hear his name called on draft day. Doing so would make recent history. He’d become the first Minnesota-Duluth player drafted since OL David Viaene by the Houston Oilers in the eighth round of the 1988 draft, so long ago that such a round no longer exists. He’d also become just the 17th Alaskan-born player to play in the NFL and only one of a handful drafted.
