Steelers announce uniform numbers for their draft class; no single-digits for these rookies

Chris Adamski
Wednesday, May 3, 2023 11:56 a.m. | Wednesday, May 3, 2023 11:56 a.m.

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AP

Keeanu Benton wore No. 95 in college while playing as a nose tackle for Wisconsin. He will keep that number in the pros, it became known after the Pittsburgh Steelers announced uniform numbers for their incoming draft class.

The NFL has significantly relaxed its policy on uniform numbers by position. But if the assignments given to their incoming draft class is any indication, the Pittsburgh Steelers intend to remain traditional and old-school.

The Steelers announced uniform numbers for their draft picks Wednesday, and they look not unlike those given to players at like positions for decades prior.

The digits to be worn by their first two draft picks already were known — Broderick Jones said he wanted to wear No. 77 to honor deceased former Georgia teammate Devin Willock, and former Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor said Joey Porter Jr. was going to wear his old No. 24. The Steelers confirmed those Wednesday.

Second-round defensive lineman Keeanu Benton was the only drafted Steeler who will wear the same number he did in college. Benton also donned No. 95 at Wisconsin.

(As an aside, if the drafting of Benton itself did not already make that apparent, giving him Chris Wormley’s old uniform number seems to all but officially close the book on a return to the Steelers for Wormley, a defensive lineman who remains a free agent).

Third-round tight end Darnell Washington will wear No. 80 with the Steelers, ending speculation he would become the first player in modern franchise history to wear No. 0. Washington was No. 0 for Georgia, and the NFL approved the usage of that digit for the first time this past offseason.

Fourth-round outside linebacker Nick Herbig was assigned No. 51, seventh-round cornerback Cory Trice Jr. was given No. 27 and seventh-round offensive lineman Spencer Anderson No. 74.

???? DRAFT PICK DIGITS ARE IN ????

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— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 3, 2023

All are within the traditional number deployment the NFL mandated through the 2020 season. The rigid requirements were loosened in 2021, and further so this offseason.

Herbig had worn No. 19 at Wisconsin, but Trice (No. 23) and Anderson (No. 54) donned digits traditionally associated with their respective positions.

Porter Jr., though, had been No. 9 both at North Allegheny and with Penn State. But kicker Chris Boswell has been the owner of No. 9 for the Steelers since 2015.

Taylor told the Dave Dameshek’s “Minus Three” podcast that his former teammate, Joey Porter Sr., told him the younger Porter would wear No. 24 in honor of the player who’s arguably been the Steelers’ best cornerback of the past 2-3 decades.

Since the NFL liberalized its uniform-number guidelines, the only Steelers players to don non-traditional numbers for their positions during a regular-season game have been outside linebacker Melvin Ingram (eight games as No. 8 in 2021) and cornerback Josh Jackson (four games as No. 16 last season).

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