May 6, 2016 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – Despite being the winner of the 2015 Bronko Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik awards as college football’s best defensive player and a consensus All-America pick, Temple’s Tyler Matakevich knew he wasn’t going to be selected on the opening day of the draft last week.

That was an honor reserved for the 31 first-round draft picks.

Heck, Matakevich was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be selected last Friday, either. That was when the second and third rounds were held.

Surely a player who racked up 493 career tackles, 40.5 of which were for a loss; seven career interceptions; seven sacks; and four forced fumbles would get a call from a team on the third day, Saturday, when rounds four through seven were held.

With the draft winding down, Matakevich had all but given up hope.

Then, his phone rang about 6 p.m. It was Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin to tell Matakevich that Pittsburgh was going to take him with its second pick in the seventh round, making him the 246th player selected. Only seven players were picked after Matakevich.

“When (Tomlin) called me this past Saturday, I went from the lowest of the lows to the highest of highs,” said Matakevich, who signed a contract with the Steelers Thursday. “Just to hear him say the things he had to say about me and the reason they brought me in, I’m just so thrilled and excited. This is a perfect opportunity for me to take the next step of my life.”

That next step started Friday as the Steelers opened their rookie mini-camp at the Rooney Sports Complex.

Taking an inside linebacker might not have been a glaring need for the Steelers, but general manager Kevin Colbert knows a bargain when he sees one.

“He was the highest player left on our board,” Colbert said. “When we graded Tyler, he’s not the biggest, he’s not the fastest but he’s a heck of a football player and highly productive. I think he has 493 tackles and three-and-a-half years of starting. He gets his hands on passes and fumbles. He makes interceptions; he gets (pass breakups). He’s a football player and we would like to see what he can do in the mix.”

Matakevich (6-0, 238 pounds) admits he’s not a player who is going to impress anyone with his size or athleticism. But he makes up for what he lacks by spending extra time in the film room.

It helped him reach at least 100 tackles in all four of his seasons at Temple. He helped transform the Owls from a college laughingstock to a team that went 10-2 in 2015, a record that included an upset win over Penn State.

“To go from 2-10 to finishing my senior year with a 10-2 season and to get to a bowl, we really started turning that program around,” Matakevich said. “I don’t think anyone would have seen those things happening.”

Matakevich’s style of play was contagious. If teammates wanted to make a tackle, they had to beat the burly linebacker from Connecticut to the ball carrier.

“We’d always joke, ‘I’ll meet you at the ball.’ We’d have contests between ourselves, who was going to get to the ball first,” Matakevich said.

He won more often than not.

For a player who was overlooked coming out of high school – he had to attend a prep school after high school because college coaches balked at giving him a scholarship – being overlooked in the draft hasn’t been the end of the world.

All Matakevich wanted was an opportunity, which is exactly what he’ll get from the Steelers.

If he needs an example that he can make it, he need look no farther than his position coach, Jerry Olsavsky. Like Matakevich, Olsavsky was a highly productive but undersized inside linebacker when he was selected by the Steelers in the 10th round of the 1989 draft. Olsavsky played 10 years in the NFL.

“It’s a perfect opportunity for me to come here and excel,” he said. “Ever since I was little, my goal was to play in the National Football League. Now that I’m here, I don’t want to be happy just because I’m here. I want to build on this for myself and this tradition that they have.

“Coming out of high school, I wasn’t really highly recruited. I had to prove myself. Coming out of college, teams are still passing me up. I’m thankful the Steelers saw the potential in me. I’m going to give them everything I have.”

Odds and end zones

The Steelers signed sixth-round pick, linebacker Travis Feeney Friday. Feeney is the third Steelers’ draft pick to sign, joining Matakevich and fellow seventh-round pick, receiver Demarcus Ayers. … The Steelers’ rookie camp will continue today before wrapping up Sunday. Pittsburgh has 54 players in the camp, including 20 who were invited to come in for a tryout. Included in the group are former Pitt and Woodland Hills’ star defensive tackle K.K. Mosley-Smith and Penn State running back Brandon Johnson.