Despite endless media speculation and even plugged-in insiders like Adam Schefter confident the Pittsburgh Steelers would not only draft Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders but do so in the first round, the Steelers passed on him not once but three times in the 2025 NFL Draft. Instead, the team took DL Derrick Harmon, RB Kaleb Johnson, and EDGE Jack Sawyer with its first three picks.
Joining The Rich Eisen Show Tuesday, the PPG’s Gerry Dulac explained why Pittsburgh wasn’t going to make Sanders a priority.
“Despite what all the national people thought, they did not intend to draft him,” Dulac told Eisen. “If he was there in the sixth round, maybe. But the people that had him going to the Steelers and had him going at 21, that just wasn’t going to happen. No quarterback was going at 21. That includes Jaxson Dart, who they did have a first-round grade on.”
Credit to Dulac for accurately calling the smokescreen on Sanders, asserting before the draft he would not be the pick. Instead, Pittsburgh’s focus of the draft landed on improving its defensive line and run defense, two areas that faded down the stretch a year ago. Three of the team’s top four picks were dedicated to the mission, the Steelers selecting Harmon, Ohio State EDGE Jack Sawyer, and Iowa DL Yahya Black.
Our site also had the same premise with 12 of our final 16 mock drafts mocking a defensive lineman to the Steelers in the first round. Nine of those predicted Harmon. Compare that to the 15 we selected from the national media, only five slotted in a defensive lineman and only two – Todd McShay and Dane Brugler – picked Harmon.
“I could tell you there were other quarterbacks they were more interested in in the middle to late rounds,” Dulac said of the team passing on Sanders.
Ultimately, the quarterback selected was Ohio State’s Will Howard in the sixth round. Taken roughly 40 picks earlier by the Browns, we’ll never know if Sanders would’ve been the pick had he been on the board when it came time for Pittsburgh to address the position.
The only debatable part of Dulac’s commentary is an admission before the draft that Pittsburgh had a first-round grade on Sanders. If true, how could the team justify passing on him in the fourth round for Jack Sawyer, a talented but No. 4 outside linebacker? In the same breath, Dulac admitted Sanders would be “part of the conversation” if the top defensive linemen were off the board.
No matter the reason or rationale, Pittsburgh didn’t use 2025 to take its big swing at quarterback. That could be coming in 2026 with what’s projected to be a stronger quarterback class for a Steelers team that will carry more draft capital to make a big-time trade.
