Though the Pittsburgh Steelers are seemingly in no position to land one of the consensus top two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, at least one analyst believes the team could throw its hat in the ring. NFL.com’s Eric Edholm lists the Steelers as one of seven teams that could be an option for Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders.
The Steelers came in seventh of seven teams behind a slew of others with high draft picks and equally high quarterback needs.
“But why not the Steelers? They’re the best wild-card option right now in my mind, even if it would be a stretch to rank them among the favorites here.
There’s very little clarity on Russell Wilson’s status currently, even as he’s campaigned to return to Pittsburgh. Like Wilson, Justin Fields is a free agent — and the Steelers benched him for Wilson. They might want to work with Fields again, but would they bring him back as an unchallenged starter? Perhaps not.”
At the least, Colin Cowherd will be happy to hear such thinking.
It’s fair to say the Steelers lack clarity at quarterback. There’s no common pick for who will start in 2025. Some think Justin Fields, some believe Russell Wilson (at least, Wilson himself does), while plenty of outside names have been floated: Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, and Kirk Cousins.
Sanders, son of Deion Sanders, is regarded as one of the top two quarterbacks in this draft class, likely behind Miami (Fla.)’s Cam Ward. But where Sanders go is up for debate. He isn’t considered a true can’t-miss prospect and even quarterback-needy teams like the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants could pass in favor of Sanders’ teammate WR/CB Travis Hunter and freaky Penn State EDGE Abdul Carter.
And perhaps teams would pass on Sanders if Deion Sanders put pressure on them to do so. Deion’s publicly stated he doesn’t want his son to play for certain teams and intimated in a pre-Super Bowl interview with Dan Patrick he’s informed teams of that.
If Sanders slips out of the top three, a trade-up could be in play if Pittsburgh wanted to be aggressive. The cost would be high. But so would the potential payoff.
Sanders is best known for taking care of the football, his accuracy, and his toughness behind a shaky college offensive line. In 2024, he completed an NCAA-leading 74 percent of his passes with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In two years, he carried an impressive 4.9:1 touchdown to interception ratio. There are questions about his slender build and his lack of elite arm strength and physical tools.
The other teams on Edholm’s list are obvious choices: the Las Vegas Raiders (No. 6 overall), the Tennessee Titans (No. 4 overall), the New York Jets (No. 7 overall), all the quarterback-needy teams with top-10 picks.
Barring a draft-day slip and radical move by GM Omar Khan, Sanders is unlikely to become a Steeler. But stranger things have happened during the draft and Pittsburgh should be considering all options. After all, the majority of contending teams found their quarterback in Round 1 and the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Baltimore Ravens all traded up to do so. We’ll have a full report on Sanders before April’s draft kicks off.
