Steelers take Iowa defensive tackle Logan Lee with the 2nd pick of the 6th round

When Logan Lee came to Pittsburgh earlier this month for an official pre-draft visit, Mike Tomlin was unavailable to be part of the welcoming party.

But Lee, a longtime Steelers fan, already had met Tomlin.

Sort of.

“I was in high school … and I think his son (Dino) was there for the Nike Opening Camp, and I was there, too,” Lee said, “So, I was running down the field and accidentally ran into him.

“‘Oops, sorry, sir — ‘Oh my gosh; you’re Coach Tomlin!’ I was freaking out.”

Lee paused.

“Yeah,” he said, “I tested really well that day.”

More important, surely, was how Lee played over four years at Iowa and how he performed at the combine and in the pre-draft circuit. It must have went well because he made enough of an impression that the Steelers used the 178th overall pick on Lee.

The 6-foot-5, 281-pound Lee was chosen with the first of two selections the Steelers held in Round 6.

“We got another piece of the puzzle,” Steelers defensive line coach Karl Dunbar said soon after the pick was made Saturday. “I think Logan Lee brings a lot of good things to the table. He’s got size, got length and can do a lot of different things.

“It think he fits the Steelers’ mold.”

Asked to clarify what, exactly, that entails, Dunbar said: “Strong hands and a big man, and I think he is very, very mature.”

Lee will turn 24 in June and was the only married player on the Iowa roster last season.

Statistically, Lee had three sacks during each of the past three seasons as a starter for some of the country’s best defenses.

Dunbar said Lee has the versatility to play virtually any spot along the defensive line in the Steelers’ scheme.

Dunbar got to know Lee when he attended Iowa’s pro day this spring.

A native of Illinois, Lee laughed and said it was a mere coincidence that his status as a lifelong Steelers fan correlated with his college selection of Iowa, which wears black and gold. Lee said his first exposure to the Steelers as a young child came through a friend and his father.

“And then I got into the historical NFL stuff, so then I just loved the Steel Curtain stuff (of the 1970s Steelers),” Lee said. “I love watching Mel Blount maul people, rip their heads off and stuff.”