Alejandro Villanueva has been a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers since head coach Mike Tomlin decided to bring him onto the practice squad in September of 2014. In the years prior to that, he was an active-duty Army Ranger, a decorated war veteran who both led and experienced leadership in literal situations of life and death.
Leadership has come to be a quality toward which the 6’9” franchise left tackle gravitates, and he has always seen Tomlin as that sort of leader, something that he has mentioned in a number of interviews.