No NFL Draft is complete without some weird stats. To celebrate the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 draft class, here’s an offseason edition of our “Stats of the Weird” with the most notable quirky takeaways from the team’s seven selections.
– Derrick Harmon is the first defensive lineman the Steelers drafted in the first round since Cam Heyward in 2011.
– In two of Omar Khan’s three drafts, he’s taken two pairs of players from the same school. This year, it was Ohio State EDGE Jack Sawyer and QB Will Howard and Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson and NT Yahya Black. In 2023, it was Georgia OT Broderick Jones and TE Darnell Washington plus Wisconsin NT Keeanu Benton and EDGE Nick Herbig.
The last time it occurred prior to Khan was 1993 when the Steelers drafted Colorado DB Deon Figures in Round 1 and LB Chad Brown in Round 1 along with Mississippi State DE Kevin Henry and LB Marc Woodard in the fourth and fifth rounds, respectively.
– In the eight classes from 2017-2024, at least a pair of players from the same school have been drafted seven times:
~2017 with Tennessee CB Cam Sutton and QB Josh Dobbs
~2018 with Oklahoma State QB Mason Rudolph and WR James Washington
~2019 with Michigan LB Devin Bush and TE Zach Gentry
~2020 with Maryland RB Anthony McFarland Jr. and S Antoine Brooks
~2021 with OT Dan Moore Jr. and LB Buddy Johnson
~And the aforementioned 2023 and 2025 classes
– Six of the Steelers’ seven selections came from the Big Ten. The lone exception was seventh-round CB Donte Kent, hailing from the MAC.
– Since becoming GM, Omar Khan and the Steelers have used of five of their six first- or second-round selections on the offensive or defensive line: Broderick Jones, Keeanu Benton, Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier, and Derrick Harmon. Only CB Joey Porter Jr. serves as an exception.
– With the Green Bay Packers selecting Texas WR Matthew Golden in the first round, the Steelers now hold the NFL’s longest drought of picking a wideout in the first round. Their last such choice was Ohio State’s Santonio Holmes in 2006, the only wide receiver drafted in the first round that year.
The two closest teams to Pittsburgh are the Indianapolis Colts (2007, Anthony Gonzalez) and the Los Angeles Rams (2013, Tavon Austin).
– Drafting for Pittsburgh from 2000-2022, only four times did ex-GM Kevin Colbert not select a wide receiver. Omar Khan hasn’t taken the position in two of his three draft classes.
– Coming off his national title, Pittsburgh selected QB Will Howard in the sixth round. It marked the first time the Steelers drafted a quarterback directly coming off a championship.
– And if Howard ever throws a touchdown pass for Pittsburgh, he’ll be the team’s first quarterback drafted in the sixth round or beyond to do so since Jim Miller, who was drafted in the sixth round in 1994. Miller threw two touchdowns for Pittsburgh in 1995.
