The Pittsburgh Steelers still need help at wide receiver. In fact, the position ranks very high on the Steelers’ list of roster holes heading into 2025, with quarterback as one of the only other clear areas that could be deemed more important at this time.
As fans know, Pittsburgh has commonly filled their WR corps in the NFL draft in recent years, and Pro Football Network’s Dalton Miller believes that Steelers general manager Omar Khan will stick to that strategy this spring.
“The Pittsburgh Steelers have consistently had a ‘type’ at wide receiver since Antonio Brown,” Miller wrote on December 29, after predicting that the Steelers would spend their 2025 first-round pick on Texas Longhorns WR Isaiah Bond.
“Bond is arguably the most gifted route runner and separator in the class,” the Pro Football Network analyst reasoned. “However, something has been going on in Austin with him that stinks to high heaven.”
Miller went on to explain that Bond has “reportedly battled an ankle injury all season, but the stink goes beyond that.”
“The ankle has made the tape less impressive in the back half of the season, but the clear disconnect between Bond and [Texas quarterback] Quinn Ewers seems to ooze through the television screen,” he said. “Between miscommunications, missed opportunities inside the progression while wide open, and bad plays like the SEC Championship Game interception, it seems Ewers doesn’t trust Bond.”
“We’ve seen [head coach] Mike Tomlin and the Steelers harness players like this before,” Miller eventually noted, concluding that “Bond could be a special player at the NFL level because few players have had his combination of explosiveness, fluidity, and natural route-running prowess over the years.”
Isaiah Bond Would Give Steelers Another Big Play Threat for Russell Wilson — or Another QB
The 33rd Team’s draft expert Kyle Crabbs compared Bond to Miami Dolphins playmaker Jaylen Waddle, so that gives you a sense of his potential.
“Bond would thrive in a timing-oriented offense, where the separation he can create at the top of the break can be consistently targeted and afford him the opportunity to optimize his run-after-catch skills,” Crabbs detailed in his November scouting report.
Continuing: “Bond has reliable hands in the middle and can work from all over the formation — teams can put him in motion and generate free releases to work into space and rub off defenders to create explosive plays in the passing game, too. Bond should be considered an early starter and a potential featured player in an NFL offense.”
On paper, this skillset fits with a quarterback like Russell Wilson, should the veteran signal-caller return in 2025.
Parts of Bond’s game overlaps with that of Calvin Austin or 2024 draft pick Roman Wilson, but you can never have too much speed and big-play ability inside an offense — and that’s exactly what the Alabama and Texas product brings to the table.
“Bond is an explosive vertical-threat receiver who can provide big scoring plays for an offense,” The Draft Network’s Keith Sanchez wrote in June of 2024, summing up Bond in a nutshell.
He stands at 5-foot-11, and Crabbs described him as a “hyper-creative route runner” with “surreal short-area agility” and change of direction while highlighting a couple of his greatest strengths.
Isaiah Bond Is Coming off Disappointing 2024 Campaign
In June of 2024, Pro Football Network draft scout Ian Cummings wrote that Bond “grades out as a top-64 prospect who could ascend into the first-round conversation with a good year at Texas.”
Since then, his numbers have actually regressed a bit, as he finished his lone Longhorns campaign with 532 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns. Bond also added 98 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Needless to say, this was a disappointment following Bond’s 668-yard sophomore season at Alabama, but Miller already spoke to some of the reasons that this lackluster output may have occurred.
And given the general lack of clear-cut draft talent in 2025, Bond’s high-ceiling skillset could still appeal at the back end of round one. Especially for a team devoid of wide receiver talent like the Steelers.
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