The Pittsburgh Steelers love players with NFL bloodlines. They’ve employed plenty pairs of brothers over the years. In the 2025 NFL Draft, they added another player with strong ties to their team. In the seventh round, the Steelers drafted Carson Bruener, a linebacker from Washington. His father, Mark, was a first-round pick by the Steelers in 1995, playing for them until 2003. He’s also currently a scout for the team. Mike Tomlin made it clear that the Steelers drafted Bruener because of his play, not his name.
“Great story for he and his family,” Tomlin said Saturday after the draft via the team’s YouTube channel. “But as I told him when we had him on the phone, we’re on the phone with him because of the merits of his resumé and the things he did at [Washington].
“Over 100 tackles this year as a starting inside linebacker, displaying great instincts. In 2022 and 2023, he had double-digit special teams tackles for his football team. It is a worthy resumé. It’s just an awesome sidenote that his father’s a Steeler and got drafted by this organization 30 years ago.”
Bruener did have a successful career at Washington, as Tomlin pointed out. And his NFL bloodlines didn’t hurt his chances at being drafted by the Steelers. With Bruener’s father on the scouting staff, they had a good idea about his character.
Inside linebacker is not a huge need for the Steelers, but they added to the position anyway with the Bruener pick. Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson should be the starters in 2025. Cole Holcomb should be healthy this year. Mark Robison has been a solid special teams player. The team also signed Malik Harrison this offseason.
That doesn’t leave many open spots at inside linebacker. However, Bruener will have plenty of chances to impress.
Bruener’s best path to the 53-man roster is probably special teams where he excelled in college. If he can continue that, he should be able to stick with the Steelers. Special teams are an extremely underrated aspect of the game, and. proving he can be reliable there would do a lot for Bruener.
