3rd Annual Steel Curtain Network Brett Keisel Award Winner: Yahya Black

If you want a little reminder of how we got here, here are the past articles:

Article 1

Article 2

Over the last decade the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, much like every other NFL defense, has shifted away from defensive schemes that predicated stopping the run. You might blame Commissioner Roger Goodell and his desire for ‘Fireworks Football’. Or maybe perhaps the League’s desire for ‘safety’, that, teams like the Steelers could no longer impose their will as they were accustomed to doing in years past.

Whatever the reason, the importance of the Nose Tackle position has fallen off tremendously from 10-15 years ago, and its usage in defensive schemes today has boiled down to sub-packages almost exclusively built on early down run stopping and eating double-teams.

The Steelers haven’t utilized a true Nose Tackle for a few seasons. Karl Dunbar, the Steelers D-Line Coach, has been using a more pressure-based Defensive Tackle scheme, opting for that approach as opposed to simply occupying gaps and blockers.

Not since Casey ‘Big Snack’ Hampton has the Steelers and their fans seen a mass of body like his plugging the middle of the defense. The Steelers had need of a big bodied run stuffer after the departure of Big Larry Ogunjobi, and they reached all the way down to the 5th Round bag of tricks in the 2025 Draft to find one, in an Iowa cornfield.

Enter this young man, newly minted 3rd Annual Brett Keisel Award winner Yahya Black.

As an aside, Pittsburgh must like these big corn-fed boys, because 2024 7th Round pick Logan Lee, also a Keisel Award finalist last year, and 2025 3rd Round pick Kaleb Johnson are all out of Iowa.

I can remember in the past when watching Casey Hampton play. There were games in which he would get penalized or something would happen to irk him on one play, and in the next play, you saw the behemoth of a man become an unstoppable mass of human that the OLine had absolutely no chance of standing up to, and Hampton would just obliterate the Olineman across from him.

That effort only flashed every once in a great while with Hampton, but when it did, the play was just over. Blown up. Done. It was amazing and awe inspiring all in the same instant.

But… what if you could get a player who could eat double-teams as expected, blow up run plays… and generate great pressure on a consistent basis?

I saw flashes of that from Yahya Black against the Carolina Panthers. It wasn’t just the play that he blew up the Oline and forced the fumble. He has the ability to cause disruption consistently and he hasn’t even played an official snap yet. If he can get to the point of being able to make ‘splash’ plays on a semi-consistent basis, then the Steelers have once again found a late-round diamond in the rough.

What a player like Black shows to the League is that with the right team and scheme, even an average player can be not just good, but special. This is why Quarterbacks are often traded around the League a few times before being cast off to the UFL. The right player in the right system can be lightning-in-a-bottle, just ask players like Jared Goff or even Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.

It’s not just Steelers fans that have noticed Black’s play either. Brian Baldinger points out just how special Black’s talent is, and even hints to a comparison of a Steelers great. Be careful though, these video shorts are enough to leave any Steelers fan eagerly panting for more.

The real question left is if he can find a way to become a 3 down Nose Tackle in today’s pass-centric NFL? There is no reason to think that he can’t after seeing the flashes of his play, and if he does, then it starts a new narrative about what is possible from the NT position in the 3-4 Defense of today’s NFL.

Yahya Black the person fits the description of a Brett Keisel award winner to a “T”.

Growing up in Marshall, Minnesota, a small town of about 14,000, Yahya was described as a quiet young man that earned his respect through relentless effort. Naturally gifted and with the work ethic his parents instilled in him, not only did he play both offense and defense on the football field, he was a 3 sport star in HS, playing Basketball and Track as well.

In fact, by the end of his HS career, his coach Terry Bahlmann said that he realized that Black could have went D1 at EITHER Defensive Tackle or Offensive Tackle (I know what you Broderick Jones haters are thinking… just stop with that nonsense). Black’s unselfishness and leadership through his work ethic and team-first mentality is what Bahlmann said were his most noticeable traits and that they shone through in every game.

As a freshman, he was initially playing as a slender EDGE/Defensive End, but as he added size and strength, he transitioned inside and earned a name for himself as one of the school’s most feared defenders. Coach Bahlmann recalled moments where Black would drive opposing Linemen all the way into the endzone, much like the scene in the movie “The Blind Side”.

In the end, Yahya Black finished his HS career as the team captain, recorded a school record 17.5 career sacks, and All-State honors before heading to college, where he was a 4 Star recruit in High School coming out of Minnesota in 2020, ranking 2nd in the State and 14th Nationally among ALL athletes, not just at Nose/Defensive Tackle.

It wasn’t even until Black was a senior in High School and on his official recruiting visit to Iowa in 2019 when he experienced his first collegiate football game. His love was immediate, his decision firm and final, he said he simply “fell in love with the University of Iowa”, and ended his recruiting before going anywhere else.

Head Coach Kirk Ferentz had said he wasn’t so sure that Black actually liked it at Iowa, recalling his quiet demeanor as the reason. Little did Ferentz know, that’s just who Black is. The “quiet before the storm” so to speak, as this article goes to explain his pregame ritual of listening to Adele (not exactly the first artist that comes to mind when trying to get in the right head space for a football game!).

In the end Black had a productive career at Iowa before getting picked with the 164th Overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, That, combined that with a very strong Camp full of buzz, and an equally impressive preseason, he did everything needed to come in as an unheralded late round pick to make this team, and now congratulations are in order for this young man of steel.

And if all of that wasn’t enough to convince you that Black has earned this award, we also have to remember who it was that introduced Steelers Nation to this young man on Draft night…

… none other than Brett Keisel himself.

Congratulations Yahya Black, you are now officially part of the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers roster, and our 3rd Annual recipient of the Steel Curtain Network’s Brett Keisel award!