The Pittsburgh Steelers passed on QB Shedeur Sanders 21st overall, and some in the national media are beside themselves. While few in the local media ever bought into the notion of their taking a quarterback in the first round, their particular situation fueled that belief in the broader sports media world.
As we found out on Thursday night, they were wrong. With Shedeur Sanders sitting there, the Steelers selected DL Derrick Harmon. QB Jaxson Dart was also available, for whom the New York Giants later traded up to draft. So despite the extensive homework they did on this quarterback class, they have decided to wait. Dan Orlovsky, a former quarterback and current NFL analyst, was firmly on the Shedeur Sanders bandwagon. He reacted to the Steelers passing on him.
“I’m surprised”, he said in a video he posted on X after Pittsburgh selected Harmon over a quarterback. “I thought the Steelers would take Shedeur [Sanders]. They must know. They must know that [Aaron] Rodgers is gonna play and he wanted to wait—maybe Kirk Cousins. But no second-round pick, so I thought, really, take Shedeur at 21 or trade back and maybe get [Jalen] Milroe late in the first round”.
“But they’ve got to have a plan with Rodgers or Cousins in place or feel really, really really good about it. I thought it was gonna be Shedeur [Sanders]” that the Steelers draft, Orlovsky continued. “There’s just a giant question mark at that position. It’s unbelievable that the quarterback in Pittsburgh is just a giant question mark”.
While the Steelers did not send the house to Shedeur Sanders’ Pro Day, they brought him in for a lengthy pre-draft visit. HC Mike Tomlin also spoke at length about the quarterback during the Steelers’ pre-draft press conference. Yet when they had the opportunity to draft him without trading up, they went in another direction.
According to Gerry Dulac, the Steelers did have a first-round grade on Sanders—and Jaxson Dart. But they obviously had a higher first-round grade on Derrick Harmon, who should be a plug-and-play starter. Meanwhile, Mason Rudolph remains on the top of their quarterback depth chart.
The team has a contract offer out there for Aaron Rodgers, who recently admitted that he is considering retirement. With the Steelers passing on Sanders, it will fuel speculation that they “know something” that we don’t, which—they should. They had better know something, just because they’re the ones who are supposed to know something.
The thing is, even though the Steelers didn’t draft Sanders—and he’s still out there, by the way—there are other quarterbacks out there. Outside of Sanders, there may not be another quarterback drafted before their third-round selection. Milroe is the most obvious possibility. They have done their homework on Will Howard, Tyler Shough, and a number of others. Odds are extremely high that they draft some quarterback. But they obviously didn’t see a franchise lock in this class, so they chose to wait. Which is hardly surprising, for those who follow the team closely.
