Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed wide receiver Cole Burgess to a reserve/future contract for the 2026 season, the team announced on Wednesday.
Burgess, 25, tried out for the team in November, and while the Steelers didn’t sign him at that point, they must have liked something they saw, because they circled back to land him for a future deal.
Burgess, 25, was an undrafted free agent of the Cincinnati Bengals in 2024. He spent his rookie season on the Cincinnati practice squad, and re-signed with the Bengals for 2025, but was released in August. He played in two preseason games as a rookie and three this past summer, without recording any statistics.
The 6-foot, 192-pound Burgess posted outstanding athletic testing numbers coming out of Division III Cortland State. He ran a 4.45-second 40-yard dash, posted a 6.72-second three-cone drill and had a 41.5-inch vertical for an overall 9.80 Relative Athletic Score out of 10.
Burgess spent six seasons with the Red Dragons, but played only four. His best season came as a sixth-year senior in 2023, when he caught 87 passes for 1,375 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also had three career kickoff returns for a touchdown and a 25-yard per return average.
The Steelers have always had a a number of players from small-school backgrounds, so it makes sense that they’d mine the Division III ranks to find Burgess.
The Steelers current roster also includes Division II players Kyle Dugger (Lenoir-Rhyne), and Aiden Williams (Minnesota-Duluth) and numerous FCS players like Miles Killebrew (Southern Utah), Christian Kuntz (Duquesne), Dylan Cook (Montana), Mason McCormick (South Dakota State) and Donald Parham (Stetson).
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Sign Hyper-Athletic Division III Wide Receiver
