When the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Yahya Black in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, we knew this team was getting a big player for the defensive trenches, but there were some questions surrounding how the coaching staff viewed his role. His recently reported weight puts those questions to rest. It looks like he's heading toward playing nose tackle.
On Thursday, Teresa Varley of Steelers.com wrote a piece on Black that revealed his updated playing weight.
"Black, who is 6-5, 352 pounds, is what Coach Mike Tomlin referred to as an F-350," Varley wrote.
We knew Black was a big guy, but we didn't have a clue that his weight was up in the 350s. Black's listed playing weight was all over the place, as Sports Reference had Black's listed weight from early in his Iowa Hawkeyes career at 287 pounds. Meanwhile, ESPN had him listed at 317 pounds, while the official Iowa Hawkeyes' website still has Black listed as a 279-pound freshman.
It's easy to see on film that Black played with more mass on his frame than these listed weights suggested. At the 2025 Senior Bowl, Black weighed in at 337 pounds. Then at the NFL Combine, Black stayed about the same at 336 pounds before cutting weight to get to 330 pounds for this Iowa Pro Day.
Now reportedly listed at 352, it's clear to see that Black will have one primary role for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Yahya Black's weight suggests he will play nose tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Though the Pittsburgh Steelers website has Yahya Black listed at 6'5'' and 336 pounds, they almost always use NFL Combine numbers—the fact that Cameron Heyward is still listed at 295 pounds is a dead giveaway. Interestingly, the Steelers' roster also has him listed as a defensive end. But we know there are blurred lines between the positional labeling that this team likes to use.
If Black is over 6'5'' and 352 pounds, it's hard to argue that he's going to be anything other than a nose tackle for the Steelers in 2025. At the Combine at 336 pounds, Black tested as a poor athlete in respect to his peers, running a 5.39 40-yard dash (fifth percentile) with a 1.88 10-yard split (first percentile). He's not laterally quick or fast enough to play 3-4 base end, and Black isn't going to get any more athletic with added weight.
Pittsburgh's run defense was humiliated down the stretch last year, and most fans would have been shocked if they escaped the draft without a run-plugging interior defender. We know that first-round pick Derrick Harmon was drafted to play base 3-4 defensive end (similar to the role Cam Heyward plays), and the redundancy of pigeonholing Black into that position wouldn't make sense.
Black is a nose tackle by trade. My prediction when they drafted the Iowa product is that he would play 0-technique and 1-technique for the Pittsburgh Steelers. His recently reported weight is only confirmation of what we already expected.