In a last-minute draft news twist, Oregon DL Derrick Harmon has an apparent medical red flag despite a durable and injury-free college career. First reported days ago but light on details, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo added specifics to what the concern is.
Joining Johnny Venerable on an Arizona Cardinals-centric podcast, Garafolo said he hears Harmon’s being flagged for a shoulder injury.
“You could be looking at him back half of the first round. It’s a shoulder. I did ask about that one today,” Garafolo told Venerable.
Unfortunately, details beyond “shoulder” are still light on Harmon. It’s not clear if this is a long-term concern or an injury Harmon suffered during the pre-draft process. Perhaps it explains why he did little to nothing at Oregon Pro Day and throughout the process, only ran a 40-yard dash. He didn’t participate in any other testing, skipping the bench, the jumps, and the shuttle drills, though he went through the on-field workout at the NFL Combine.
Garafolo’s commentary is notable but didn’t sound alarming.
“If there’s two guys and you’ve got the tiebreaker, one’s clean medical, the other one’s not so we’ll go with the clean medical,” he said as an example of how teams might think.
How individual teams feel about a player’s health can vary and there’s never one consensus. Pittsburgh has been more aggressive in taking medically flagged players, drafting OT Troy Fautanu and TE Darnell Washington despite reports of long-term knee concerns. And they selected ILB Payton Wilson and CB Cory Trice Jr. despite overt medical concerns, both players suffering multiple serious injuries in college.
Their NFL track records are mixed and still to be determined. Washington has occasionally popped up on the Steelers’ injury report with a knee injury but hasn’t missed time while Fautanu suffered two knee injuries as a rookie. Wilson was healthy throughout his rookie year while Trice tore his ACL in 2023 and battled a hamstring injury in 2024.
ESPN NFL insider Peter Schrager left Harmon out of his final first-round mock draft, potentially because of the medical concern. But all it takes is one team to “pass” him to be the pick. If Harmon makes it to No. 21, we’ll see how the Steelers feel about him compared to the rest of the defensive line options on the board.
