Behind the Steel Curtain
A better late than never draft profile on Pittsburgh’s newest cornerback.
In this dead part of the Steelers’ season, it’s worth taking a closer look at the team’s rookie class. As we never got the chance to do a draft profile on Donte Kent earlier this year at BTSC, here’s a scouting report-style breakdown of Pittsburgh’s new cornerback.
We’ve made it to the end of the Steelers Rookie Report series, wrapping up with an evaluation of Pittsburgh’s final pick in the 2025 NFL Draft: cornerback Donte Kent (I already analyzed the team’s main UDFA class here).
An important disclaimer with this draft report is that I could only find one full game of Kent’s online — a September matchup versus Illinois. The rest of the clips I pulled from some extended game highlight reels, which generally only show cornerbacks’ worst moments, so I did what I generally never do and used a few reps from Kent’s own highlight reel to balance it out.
That’s to say this isn’t an ideally representative sample. But I feel like I have a good handle on Kent’s game after my research, and I hope you will too after reading this article.
At 5’10, 189 pounds, Kent’s a bit on the shorter side, but he has a compact build and a physical style of play. A versatile defensive back who’s seen reps at outside cornerback, slot cornerback, and even safety over his career, he’s comfortable making tackles all over the field.
His effort and willingness to make tackles late in the play immediately stood out to me. Even as a cornerback he still has safety traits as a last line of defense.
He’s also fun to watch coming downhill, with some successful corner blitzes under his belt.
Still though, he’s not a huge cornerback. There are a few missed tackles on tape, and he can get pushed around a bit. For the most part though, Kent’s demeanor and tackling ability are among the strongest aspects of his profile.
But what about coverage? Kent tested with a respectable 7.43 RAS, headlined by an impressive 4.38-second 40-yard dash. His long speed is not an issue, and I liked Kent best in man coverage carrying downfield routes. He keeps up with receivers well and plays with some physicality.
Sometimes, that physicality can backfire. Kent can be a bit too hands-on in coverage, and he bit hard on a few double moves in the reps I watched.
Ball skills are another, albeit milder, concern. Kent has just two career interceptions over his five collegiate seasons, with none in the last three. As a talented punt returner — more on that later — he’s clearly not allergic to catching the football, but from the limited sample size I watched, he seems comfortable catching the ball...
