DT Derrick Harmon’s No. 99 jersey was quickly revealed after the Pittsburgh Steelers made him their first-round pick last Thursday, but now they have unveiled the jersey numbers of the entire rookie draft class, per the Steelers account on X.
Harmon is wearing No. 99, last worn by Larry Ogunjobi but popularized by Levon Kirkland and Brett Keisel. He wore No. 41 at Michigan State and No. 55 at Oregon, but 41 isn’t allowed for defensive linemen in the NFL and 55 is taken by Cole Holcomb.
Third-round RB Kaleb Johnson will wear No. 20. This number was last worn by Cameron Sutton and Patrick Peterson before him. While his jersey won’t change much going from the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Steelers, he won’t be able to wear his college No. 2 jersey as that belongs to Mason Rudolph. No. 20 has often belonged to defensive backs in Pittsburgh, but that was Rocky Bleier’s number in the 70s.
Fourth-Round OLB Jack Sawyer wore No. 33 in college and he will keep that number in the NFL. That was last worn by C.J. Henderson.
Fifth-Round DE Yahya Black will wear No. 78, last worn by OG James Daniels. He wore No. 94 at Iowa, but Dean Lowry currently has that number in Pittsburgh. This is a strong number for defensive linemen in Steelers lore, worn by Dwight White in the 70s.
Will Howard wore No. 18 in college, which has been issued almost exclusively to wide receivers for the Steelers since 1999 when QB Mike Tomczak wore it in Pittsburgh for seven seasons. Howard breaks that trend and keeps his No. 18 college jersey. It was last worn by Mike Williams and Diontae Johnson before him.
Carson Bruener and Donte Kent, the Steelers’ pair of seventh-round picks, will wear numbers 44 and 34 respectively. Tyler Matakevich was the last Steeler to wear No. 44, but he is a free agent at the moment. Jalen Elliott, Chandon Sullivan and Terrell Edmunds were some of the most recent players to wear Kent’s No. 34, but most will remember that number as Andy Russell’s back in the 60s and 70s.
As with every year, don’t go out and buy those jerseys quite yet. While they will likely stick with these numbers, that isn’t always the case. Once roster cutdowns happen, players will sometimes switch numbers to something that was previously unavailable.
Along with the draft picks, the class of undrafted free agents were also listed on the official roster today.
– WR Roc Taylor: 81 (Last: MyCole Pruitt)
– FB DJ Thomas-Jones: 48 (Last: Ade Ogundeji)
– DB Sebastian Castro: 29 (Last: Aaron Shampklin, Ryan Watts)
– OL Aiden Williams: 71 (Last: Nate Herbig)
– K Ben Sauls: 29 (Sharing with Castro)
– TE JJ Galbreath: 87 (Last: Rodney Williams)
– WR Ke’Shawn Williams: 85 (Last: Eric Ebron)
