There was quite a bit of buzz and many insiders believed that if Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders reached No. 21 overall with the Pittsburgh Steelers on the board, he would be the selection. But in the end, the Steelers passed on drafting Sanders at No. 21 overall, ultimately going with Oregon defensive lineman Derrick Harmon as the first-round selection.
Despite needing a quarterback while finding themselves waiting on a decision from 41-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Steelers didn’t make the move to land Sanders, who has been rather polarizing throughout the pre-draft process.
Sanders came to town for a pre-draft visit and raved about his meeting with the Steelers. Ultimately, head coach Mike Tomlin raved about Sanders, too, in his pre-draft press conference. But there were a few reports that Sanders didn’t interview well across the league, and even one report that his interview with Pittsburgh was poor, though that was later shot down by Tomlin himself.
Those reports about his attitude and preparation in the pre-draft process led to some polarization on him, causing him to fall down the boards from where he was initially in the pre-draft process as seemingly a top 10 lock. Pittsburgh at No. 21 late in the process seemed like the logical destination to stop his slide, but that wasn’t the case Thursday night in Green Bay.
During his time at Colorado across two seasons after two season at Jackson State, Sanders put up some impressive numbers. He passed for 7,364 yards with 64 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions, completing 71.8% of his passes.
In the scouting report of Sanders for Steelers Depot, Steven Pavelka had this to say about the Colorado quarterback, comparing him to Andy Dalton.
“A few things are certain about Sanders: he is a proven winner who excels in accuracy from the pocket while bringing confidence that teams and players will love. However, he is not a guaranteed game-changer. A few measurables, being slightly below average, like age and height, will be overlooked. He struggles with being less mobile than most of the quarterbacks in his class, not throwing the ball away, which leads to too many sacks, and attempting too many unnecessarily difficult passes.”
Throughout the pre-draft process, opinions and stances on Sanders have varied. Some insiders reported that teams love him and his brashness, while others have reported teams were turned off by him in pre-draft meetings and don’t believe he’s a franchise-caliber QB.
The Steelers, with him available on the board and on the clock, decided to pass on him, signaling in some sense that they didn’t believe he was the franchise QB answer the team has been searching for since the Ben Roethlisberger era came to an end.
The selection of Harmon makes a great deal of sense for the Steelers, though. The Oregon product addresses a significant need for the franchise in the trenches alongside Cameron Heyward and Keeanu Benton moving forward.
