Pittsburgh Steelers sign rookie WR Cody Chrest

The Pittsburgh Steelers signed undrafted free agent wide receiver Cody Chrest on Thursday.

Chrest played seven years of college football first at Harvard and then at Sam Houston State.

With the Crimson, Chrest was on the team from 2016-2019. His best season was his senior year. It was the first time he played more than two games and he showed out for Harvard, leading the team in receptions with 45 and receiving yards with 706.

Ivy League players are not allowed to play more than four years at a school, even with redshirts or injuries, so Chrest, who had eligibility remaining transferred to Sam Houston State.

His first season with the Bearkats was the 2020-21 COVID season when FCS schools played their college seasons in the spring. He led the team with 41 receptions while adding 463 yards and two touchdowns as the Bearkats won the FCS Championship Game over South Dakota State.

He improved those numbers in his second year with Sam Houston State, finishing the fall 2021 season with 54 receptions for 704 receiving yards and five touchdowns. The season earned him a spot on the All-WAC second team.

Chrest finished on the All-WAC second team once again this past season as he notched 36 catches for 548 yards with an additional two touchdowns.

He went undrafted during the 2023 NFL Draft before being picked up as a UDFA by the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts later released him.

Cody Chrest not the only player the Steelers signed this week

Cody Chrest wasn’t the only player the Pittsburgh Steelers signed this week. One day before announcing Chrest, Pittsburgh also agreed to a deal for outside linebacker Markus Golden.

The 32-year-old Golden has spent most of his career with the Arizona Cardinals. His first stint with the team was from 2015-2018 before returning the past two seasons. He played in 2019 and 2020 with the New York Giants.

Last season, Golden played in 17 games for the Cardinals, starting 14 of them. He finished the season with 48 tackles but just 2.5 sacks. The previous season, Golden had made 48 tackles but had finished with 11.5 sacks.

He has finished with double-digit sacks three times in his career. His best single-season sack total was 12.5 during his second year in the league.

Golden was drafted in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the Cardinals out of Missouri.