Probably the most popular player selected for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of final mock drafts was QB Shedeur Sanders. The overwhelming amount of smoke in the couple weeks leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft fooled many (myself included). But the first two days of the draft are over, and Sanders still hasn’t been drafted. The Steelers have already passed on him twice. Could he still be in play for them on Day 3?
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler passed along some information on the Steelers’ view of the remaining quarterbacks.
“Feels like Steelers remain an option for Shedeur Sanders,” Fowler wrote on X. “The team is comfortable with Sanders as a distributing point guard in its offense. Not consensus on that but enough to justify taking him at some point.”
I think we can safely rule out the reports from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac that the Steelers have a first-round grade on Sanders. It also seems unlikely that Ian Rapoport’s report of a back-and-forth conversation about Sanders in the first round was ever really a thing. If either of those things were true, he would have been the easy pick in the third round Friday night.
Based on what Fowler wrote, some in the building like him while others do not. That is exactly the type of player it is okay to take a swing at on Day 3. But labeling a player as a “distributing point guard” isn’t exactly high praise for a quarterback who was viewed by most of the NFL media as a first rounder until just a few days ago.
The Steelers’ next picks are No. 123 in the fourth round and No. 146 in the fifth round. Could one of those be spent on a quarterback? If so, would that quarterback be Shedeur Sanders?
Art Rooney II appeared on Steelers Nation Radio just before the start of Day 2 and mentioned running back and quarterback as options. With the amount of work the Steelers did on the quarterback position, it seems pretty likely they will draft a developmental one at some point Saturday.
Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel are all off the board. Along with Sanders, the Steelers have also done their homework on Quinn Ewers, Kyle McCord and Will Howard. Fowler specifically mentioned Howard in his post.
“Another QB that Pittsburgh has done a lot of work on: Will Howard,” he wrote.
If you have followed our draft coverage this offseason, Alex Kozora is very high on Howard. He gave him a second-round grade. With Sanders or Howard, the Steelers could get some pretty decent value on Day 3.
