Kaden Wetjen, who earned Big Ten Returner of the Year honors after a superb 2024 season, shared with media at Iowa's Music City Bowl practice in Nashville, Tennessee that his plan is to return in 2025.
"That's the plan -- to come back, as of now," he said on Friday. "I felt like it was the best decision for me, and another year of film wouldn't hurt."
Wetjen wouldn't fully commit to returning to Iowa City next season, but that's his forecast for the moment.
"I'll say I'm 98% sure," Wetjen said. "I don't know [if I'll do an announcement]. I kind of want to keep people on their toes. I'll just be the quiet guy on that."
That outlier two percent is contingent on what his NFL future would look like.
"That's the main thing," he said. "From what I've heard from the coaches, they think I'd be best off coming back next year."
Should he return in 2025, he would be looking for an larger role on offense.
"We've been talking -- this was the first year of the offense, and we're still wanting to expand on it. So hopefully that will be a big part of next year," Wetjen added. "It's all timing and stuff with the quarterback. So it's just reps. I know having the reps in this coming spring ball -- it'll help us for next year."
He's hoping for more snaps on special teams too, believe it or not.
"I want to play gunner," Wetjen smiled. "I want to play more on special teams. That's the main goal, but we'll see what happens. I've had a couple reps in bowl prep. It's been fun, but returner is the main focus right now."
Wetjen earned first team All-Big Ten honors from the media and the coaches as the conference's top return specialist and solidified himself as the best returner in the Big Ten, as well as one of the best in the country.
This season, Wetjen led the conference in total punt returns and total kickoff returns and was third in yards per return for kickoffs and punts.
Wetjen led the Big Ten with 576 kickoff return yards with almost 100 more than the returner with the second-most kick return yards (Northwestern's Joseph Himon II with 479). He also led the Big Ten with 312 punt return yards, 18 more than the second-place punt returner (Illinois' Hank Beatty with 294). Additionally, Wetjen also set a program record with his 85-yard punt return touchdown against Northwestern.
Thanks to those performances, Wetjen was also named a first-team All-American punt returner by Football Writers Association of America and earned second-team All-American honors from Sporting News. He was also a finalist for the Jet Award as one of the three finalists up for the top returner in the country.
"It's awesome [to be an All-American as a walk-on]," he said. "I don't know how many other guys have done that, but it's a pretty cool thing to do."
According to the NFL website, the early soft deadline to declare for the upcoming NFL Draft is Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.The traditional hard deadline for special eligibility is Jan. 15.
The Williamsburg native -- who wasn't aware of either NFL Draft declaration deadline -- doesn't have a date for when he'll be 100% sure of his decision.
"I don't know," Wetjen said. "My main focus is finishing this year. I'll take some time to think about it, but I'll most likely be back."
