The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed Kalon Barnes, the fastest wide receiver in combine history!

The quickest defensive player in NFL Combine history, cornerback Kalon Barnes, has been re-signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2024 campaign.

The Pittsburgh Steelers announced on Tuesday that cornerback Kalon Barnes has been re-signed to a future contract for the 2024 campaign.

Barnes, 25, signed up for the team’s practice squad on September 15 and left after barely two weeks, on September 26. He also played for the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets after being cut by the Steelers. When Cleveland’s season ended in the Wild Card round, he was a member of the team. This season, Barnes did not participate in any games.

The Carolina Panthers selected Barnes, a 6-foot, 186-pound cornerback out of Baylor, in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft. At the 2022 combine, Barnes completed a 40-yard dash in 4.23 seconds, which was the second-best time for a defensive player and the fastest time since electronic measuring was implemented in 1999. In 2017, wide receiver John Ross recorded a 40-yard time of 4.22.

 

 

Barnes, a native of Silsbee, Texas, began his career at Baylor as a wide receiver before switching to cornerback. With the Bears, Barnes was a late bloomer; he was given a playing position early on but did not establish himself as a starter until his senior year in 2021.

Barnes finished with 53 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, three interceptions, one forced fumble, and 17 passes defensed in 41 games played in Waco.

Late in 2022, Barnes was drafted by the Panthers; however, he was left off of their initial 53-man roster. On December 14, the Minnesota Vikings plucked him from the Miami Dolphins practice squad after he signed a contract with them.

In two of the final three games of the season, he saw nine snaps of action for Minnesota, all of which were special teams. Following training camp in August of last year, Barnes was released by the Vikings and signed with the Steelers.