Logan
Lee.
Logan
Lee.
Iowa· 6'5"· 281 lb· 5.05s 40
"A four-year, 40-start Iowa interior lineman whose hands, length and gap discipline give him an NFL floor, and whose absent pass-rush plan makes rotational depth the honest ceiling."Pre-draft read
Lee is a tall, long-limbed interior lineman who played every technique across Iowa's front, from 3-tech to a heavy 5, and won with leverage discipline rather than first-step burst. At 6-5, 281 he is built like a big end more than a nose, and his game runs on hand placement, a firm two-hand stab and the ability to lock out and shed late instead of running around blocks.
Against the run he is genuinely useful: he keeps his gap, stacks down blocks and squeezes creases without getting reached. The pass rush is the limitation — nine career sacks, mostly on effort and cleanup rather than a defined move. The signature is functional strength and assignment football; an average get-off caps the ceiling.
Two-gap-capable odd or hybrid front that asks him to hold gaps and set edges on early downs, with pass-rush snaps handled by others.
Year 1: fifth or sixth defensive lineman and core special-teams body. Ceiling: reliable early-down rotational interior starter on run-heavy weeks.
An attacking one-gap NASCAR front that grades interior linemen on pressure rate and wants penetration off the snap — his get-off and lack of counters make him a liability there.
He earns his snaps on first and second down and leaves the field on third.
2024 NFL Draft Highlights: DL Logan Lee | Iowa Football
Logan Lee Iowa Highlights
NFL Draft Film Ep 533: Logan Lee / DT / Iowa / 2022 / Full Highlights
Logan Lee is exactly what Iowa produces and NFL teams keep buying on Day 3: a homegrown Illinois kid who redshirted, waited, then started 40 straight games in one of college football's most demanding defensive systems. He arrived as a tight end/defensive end tweener and left as a four-year interior anchor, which tells you as much about his work as his talent.
The production case is steadiness, not splash. He totaled 158 tackles, 18.5 for loss and 9.0 sacks across three full starting seasons, peaking with 55 tackles in 2023 for a defense that carried a broken offense, plus honorable-mention All-Big Ten nods in 2022 and 2023 and two blocked kicks. The flags were obvious: he never posted more than 3.0 sacks in a season, the pass-rush plan was thin, and his 281-pound frame asked whether he could hold up against NFL doubles.
The board had him as a late Day 3 rotational lineman with special-teams value, and Pittsburgh's front office has spent two decades finding those players in exactly this range. Omar Khan took him at 178 as depth behind Cameron Heyward and Keeanu Benton, betting that Iowa coaching plus a good three-cone would translate into a developmental interior body who never needs to be babysat.
- 01
Run-game discipline
plays his gap and squeezes creases against down blocks, and Iowa trusted him at every front technique without moving him off assignment.
- 02
Hand technique
clean two-hand stab and strong lockout that lets him control the offensive lineman's chest and disengage on the second move rather than getting sealed.
- 03
Length and frame
6-5 with real reach, he plays tall on purpose to knock down passes, batting seven balls at the line across his Iowa career.
- 04
Durability and volume
40 consecutive starts from 2021 through 2023 in a Big Ten front, a start count almost no Day 3 interior lineman brings to the league.
- 05
Football character
Academic All-Big Ten, Hayden Fry Extra Heartbeat winner and a captain-type who wins the special-teams and blocked-kick reps nobody volunteers for.
- 01
Pass-rush plan
nine career sacks and never more than 3.0 in a season; he pushes and grinds but has no bend, no counter and no true win move on third down.
- 02
Get-off
average first step out of his stance means he is regularly a beat late off the snap, forfeiting the leverage his hand technique needs to matter.
- 03
Play weight
281 pounds at 6-5 is light for the interior, and NFL doubles can wash him out of gaps he holds cleanly against single blocks.
- 04
Short-area quickness
limited lateral burst to chase laterally or redirect on stunts, so pursuit production drops off once the play leaves his gap.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.05sp50
- Vertical
- 31.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 114inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.16sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.37sp50
- Bench
- 25repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Iowa | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Iowa | 14 | 54 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2022 | Iowa | 13 | 48 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | Iowa | 14 | 55 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Career | — | 43 | 158 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
Redshirted 2019 (no statistics, season not listed). Season splits verified against the Iowa official bio; the four listed seasons sum exactly to the released career totals of 158 tackles, 18.5 TFL, 9.0 sacks, 7 PBU and 2 fumble recoveries. Started all 40 games from 2021-23. Interception and forced-fumble splits were not published and are left unverified.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Honorable mention All-Big Ten (2022, 2023)
- Phil Steele third-team All-Big Ten (2023)
- Academic All-Big Ten (2022, 2023)
- Hayden Fry Extra Heartbeat Award, defense (2023)
Tall, long developmental Day 3 lineman who fills the back of the rotation and plays special teams without ever winning a starting job.
Steelers-mold interior lineman who lasted a decade on gap discipline and versatility rather than pass-rush production.
Practice-squad-to-gameday interior body who never converts a run-defense floor into steady NFL snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Pittsburgh treated him like the developmental project the pick implied. A calf injury in training camp cost him his entire rookie year — he played two preseason games, landed on injured reserve, and although the Steelers designated him to return before the 2024 finale and the Wild Card game, he was never activated. He made his actual NFL debut in Week 1 of 2025 at the Jets, played 22 snaps over three games, then sat inactive for a nine-game stretch in the middle of the season before working back in over the final five weeks: seven games, no starts, two tackles, one quarterback hit and two passes defensed. Then 2026 vanished too — after missing seven straight camp practices he was placed on season-ending injured reserve on August 13.
In hindsight, availability rather than ability has written this file. He has one functional season of NFL exposure in three years, and it came as a rotational body behind Cameron Heyward and Keeanu Benton, the exact role a 178th pick is drafted to fill. The evaluation concerns have held — he is not a pass rusher and he does not generate pressure. The run-defense discipline and batted-ball length that made him worth a sixth-rounder are still real, but a player who cannot stay on the field never gets to bank them, and a second season-ending injured reserve stint inside a rookie contract usually decides these cases before the tape does.
Data note: Redshirted 2019 (no statistics, season not listed). Season splits verified against the Iowa official bio; the four listed seasons sum exactly to the released career totals of 158 tackles, 18.5 TFL, 9.0 sacks, 7 PBU and 2 fumble recoveries. Started all 40 games from 2021-23. Interception and forced-fumble splits were not published and are left unverified.