Prior to the start of Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II said the team was considering running back and quarterback in the third round. And lo and behold, the Steelers drafted Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson with the 83rd overall pick.
Johnson was a force to be reckoned with for the Hawkeyes in 2024, proving to be one of the best running backs in the country. But just who is Kaleb Johnson?
Grandparents’ Influence
Johnson was born to Juanielle Finley when she was only 17 years old. Her parents, Jeffrey and Charlene Strader, raised him. Unfortunately, Charlene passed away during Johnson’s high school days. But Jeffrey had been a constant positive influence to Johnson.
“That man did everything he could,” Johnson said on The Official Heisman Trophy Podcast in October 2024. “I just really appreciate him so much for sacrificing things to make me happy and keep me satisfied and stuff like that. Keep me focused. He just did everything he could to just put me in the position I am now. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. I just really appreciate him and my grandma for everything they did.”
After Charlene passed away, Jeffrey Strader made the difficult decision to pull Johnson away from athletics so he could focus on his academics per ABC’s video package about Johnson after he was drafted. And that focus on academics paid off. Johnson was an AP Scholar and Honor Roll student at Hamilton High School in Ohio per his bio on HawkeyeSports.com.
Multi-Sport Athlete
Football wasn’t the only sport that Johnson played during his early years. Before he even set foot on the gridiron, he played baseball per his appearance on the Heisman Trophy Podcast. He ultimately shifted his focus to football, and baseball took a back seat. But even in high school, he still found time to mix things up athletically. He lettered in football, basketball, and track. Despite Johnson’s size, he was quite the performer on the track.
“I ran 100 meter, 200 meter, and 4×1[100],” Johnson said at the NFL Scouting Combine per the NFL Draft by Chat Sports YouTube channel.
And running track helped him on the football field. He was able to blow past defenders with ease in high school. He eventually had to change that tactic at Iowa, though.
Inspired By Derrick Henry And Marshawn Lynch
When you look at Kaleb Johnson, one thing that will stick out is his size. At the Combine, he measured in at 6-1 and 224 pounds. He’s a big dude and a bit on the taller side for a running back. His size made him a physical running back at Iowa. But it was his inspiration and now AFC North rival RB Derrick Henry who convinced him he had a future as a running back at his size.
“I was actually going to practice,” Johnson said in an interview posted to Big 10 Football’s X/Twitter account. “And my pops took my pads up to school. Saw this billboard for the Heisman, Derrick Henry. And I was like, ‘Pop, who’s that?’ I started looking him up, I said, ‘Dang, this dude’s huge and he’s a running back?’ People told me I couldn’t be a running back because how tall I was.”
Seeing Henry win the biggest award in college football proved to Johnson that even at his size, he could still be a running back regardless of what other people told him.
As for Marshawn Lynch, he served as a mental inspiration to Johnson. As in, “run through a motherf***** face.” CBS Sports’ Aditi Kinkhabwala asked Johnson about that mentality at the Combine.
“I always had that mentality ever since I met him, ever since I really saw him,” Johnson said. “Run through that mm-mm face.”
Johnson’s highlight reel is littered with him running through defenders’ faces, and check out this play against Nebraska. Guarantee that one Cornhusker defender feels like Johnson ran right through his face.
Best Friend Is Also A Rival
While Johnson was preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft, his best friend was doing the same. Johnson and Malik Verdon both played at Hamilton High School. They graduated together and ended up playing college football in the state of Iowa, too. But while Johnson went to the Hawkeyes, Verdon went to Iowa’s in-state rival, the Iowa State Cyclones. And yes, they literally met on the field together as Verdon plays safety. Both Johnson and Verdon spoke with Spectrum News in Ohio about their relationship, including Verdon trying to stop Johnson during a game.
“I was going through the hole, and we hit each other,” Johnson said. “But I kept driving and he tried to pull me back.”
“Yeah, he tried to run through me!” Verdon said. “I started laughing and was like, ‘What are you doing brother? You’re trying to run me over!'”
It’s not too often that best friends actually collide in that fashion, but evidently a hard-fought battle has done nothing to hurt their friendship.
“This is a dream come true,” Johnson said about entering the draft together. “It just feels unreal. I feel like what me and him have been through, us playing each other, us being rivals, us playing with each other in high school. Just all of that in general, says something. And I feel like me and him, we’re just so ready to go and so excited.”
That’s a pretty special friendship, to go from teammates to rivals, and still be cheering each other on while hoping to punch their respective tickets to the NFL
No Offer From Ohio State, No Problem
So here’s a question for you. How does a star running back from Hamilton, Ohio, end up at Iowa and not at Ohio State? Well, the Buckeyes never even offered Johnson. And while that could have upset Johnson, it didn’t.
“I feel like even if they offered me, I wouldn’t have went because I want to beat them,” Johnson said per KCRG in Iowa prior to a matchup against the Buckeyes in 2024. “A lot of people want to play against them because they’re the top dog, so that’s what I wanna do. It’s always been a thing for me to show what I got against the best people in the country.”
“I’m entering with a chip on my shoulder no matter what, because it’s O-State, and I want to beat them,” Johnson said ahead of that matchup per the Dayton Daily News. “I want to play against them, because they’re the top dogs. I’m the type of person that wants to beat the top dogs. I don’t want to be with them, I want to beat them.”
Perhaps Johnson felt slighted by never receiving an offer from the biggest school in the state of Ohio. But it certainly seems like he viewed it as a chance to beat the biggest school for the sake of beating a giant, not because the giant didn’t pick him.
In the AFC, that’s a great mentality to have. You’ve got the division rivals like the Baltimore Ravens. You’ve got the recent back-to-back Super Bowl champions in the Kansas City Chiefs. No doubt Johnson is going to want a crack at those teams because of who they are, not because they didn’t draft him.
