FRISCO, Texas —Sometimes, it's difficult to come up with clear-cut standouts when I'm writing about practices from college all-star games like Sunday's third session of the 2026 East-West Shrine Bowl at Ford Center.
It's the job of the coaches to try to find constant competition for these guys. If someone is winning a 1-on-1 matchup against someone else, they usually try to find a better fit, someone that will give him a tougher time. It usually ends up a bit cloudy — some good, some bad, and I have sort through the chaff to find a few good nuggets.
That was not the case on Sunday. Everywhere I looked, Iowa wide receiver Kaden Wetjen was making another play.
Wetjen is not a likely candidate to dominate as a wide receiver. He barely even played wide receiver in college. In four seasons at Iowa, he had a combined 197 yards receiving. As a redshirt senior this past fall, he played a total of 225 snaps of offense. For comparison, J. Michael Sturdivant had 611 at Florida this year.
His primary role was as a return man, where he had almost 2,500 career all-purpose yards. Wetjen averaged a Big-Ten leading 28 and 29.8 yards per kickoff return in 2024 and 2025. He averaged an insane, NCAA-leading 26.8 yards per punt return in 2025 with a nation's best three touchdowns.
So I certainly wasn't expecting him to be the guy to be the absolutely best player on the field at the wide receiver position on Sunday. But that's what Wetjen was. A 5-foot-8 3/4 return man with elite change-of-direction skills, you'd expect Wetjen to be able to occasionally get free against man coverage, especially against smaller cornerbacks.
And he did that. But what really struck me was how refined his ability was to find space against soft coverage, especially for a guy who has barely played the position.
Iowa doesn't have a long history of producing NFL wide receivers, but it looks like the Hawkeyes might've been sitting on a diamond in the rough in Wetjen.
🏈 I already highlighted Montana wide receiver Michael Wortham once in this space this week, but he continues to be one of the best receivers here, again despite his small stature. This one was one of the best catches of the week:
🏈 The trading of helmet stickers is a longstanding Shrine Bowl tradition, and East Carolina WR Anthony Smith embraced it to a whole other level, covering his whole helmet in stickers from Miami to Youngstown State.
Smith had a nice week here, too. He's a bit lanky at 6-foot-1 7/8 and 189 pounds — Wetjen weights 195 — but he runs well and has solid hands. He's a sleeper from this week, for sure.
Smith isn't even listed on the NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board, so it's hard to even evaluate his stock before this week, but I'd be surprised if he stays off the board.
🏈 They say the low man wins. Navy defensive tackle Landon Robinson is testing just how far that principle will go. At 5-foot-11 1/4, he's one of the shortest defensive tackles in the history of the Relative Athletic Score database. Players about his height have had success in the past, though. Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Poona Ford is only 3/8 of an inch taller.
Robinson has a super-high motor, and looks to be in great shape, so he could probably add to the 291 pounds he checked in at this week. He has plenty of power and fantastic leverage. An All-American at Navy, he's been plenty productive, it's just a question of whether it can translate to the next level, but I've liked what I've seen.
🏈 When I saw Joe Cooper from Slippery Rock on the Shrine Bowl roster, I thought, "Oh, cool. A local story."
Forget that. The dude can play. In his first week of ever playing guard, here's Cooper locking up a pair of Texas A&M defensive tackles.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Shrine Bowl Takeaways: Iowa's Kaden Wetjen More Than a Gadget Player, Navy DT Pushes Envelope
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