In the parlance of military training, two Marine officers faced a key “Go-No Go” test last weekend in their long-shot hopes of playing NFL football.
Both got their “Gos.”
Marine 2nd Lt. Landon Robinson was named one of the 53 players who will be on the roster of the Cincinnati Bengals when the NFL season starts Sept. 9, while 2nd Lt. Eli Heidenreich made the same cut with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
By making that final 53-man roster, both are now tantalizingly close to completing a rare leap to the NFL after graduating from a service academy. Both players starred as teammates at the Naval Academy in 2025, but — like virtually all service academy players — were considered relative longshots to make their teams. Both were selected late in the seventh and final round of the 2026 NFL draft, spots where players historically face odds of about 1-in-5 of eventually making an NFL roster.
Both players graduated in May from the United States Naval Academy as Marine officers. A 2025 law that governs athletes at service academies allows up to five graduates each year from each academy to postpone their five-year active duty obligation while training for a professional sport.
When those sports careers end, they must return to active duty to finish their commitment.
That sequence — pro sports, then service obligation — reverses the order that service academy graduates followed for decades, which included some of their most accomplished professional athletes. Air Force Academy graduate Chad Henning flew in combat as an A-10 fighter pilot in the 1991 Gulf War before joining the Dallas Cowboys; Navy’s David Robinson served in the fleet before his Hall of Fame NBA career, and Army’s Alejandro Villanueva Martín served three tours in Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment before playing seven years in the NFL, mostly with Pittsburgh.
Long odds to reach final roster
Of the two, Robinson appeared to face particularly long odds. Though a first-team All-American at Navy at nose tackle, he was widely considered too short for NFL play at 6-foot, despite strength and agility skills at or above typical NFL levels. Perhaps even more problematic, as Robinson fought for a spot in the Bengals camp, the team signed two long-time NFL defensive line stars, Jonathan Allen and Dexter Lawrence II, to contracts worth a combined $53 million dollars. Still, Robinson made the cut as one of nine defensive linemen.
Heidenreich was named a “wide reciever/running back” on the Steelers’ final roster, a rare double-position spot in the specialization-happy NFL. A Pennsylvania native, he grew up in Mt. Lebanon just outside Pittsburgh. Now a Steeler, he will likely take handoffs or catch passes from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was an NFL rookie in 2005, when Heidenreich was two years old.
The two could face each other as soon as Sept. 27, when the Bengals travel to Pittsburgh.
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By making the 53-man roster, both are far more likely to stay on their teams and play in games, though to actually play, each will have to be picked as one of 46 the NFL allows a team to suit up for a game. However, gameday rosters are often dictated by administrative issues like injuries, and sitting out a week does not mean a player is off the team.
Each summer, NFL teams generally look at about 100 players during month-long preseason training camps and games. Many of those players are veterans already guaranteed a roster spot, leaving the rest to fight for the few spots that remain. The camps include new draft picks, a mix of undrafted players eyeing a breakthrough, and veterans coming from other teams hoping to find a new roster spot.
Both players starred as teammates at the Naval Academy in 2025, leading the team to back-to-back wins over Army and season-ending bowl wins.
