Many around the NFL thought the Pittsburgh Steelers would take quarterback Shedeur Sanders with the 21st overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Instead, Pittsburgh passed on him in multiple rounds and that reportedly has to do with the thought process in the front office.
Senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler of ESPN disclosed this week that while the Steelers were ‘comfortable’ with Sanders as a ‘distributing point guard’ type of quarterback, they ultimately chose to pass on him entirely. That’s because of a split in the organization on his fit.
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As Fowler writes, the Steelers simply didn’t view Sanders as a ‘slam dunk pick’ even in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. While the club debated using the 123rd overall pick on him, it was ultimately decided that he wasn’t worth the selection.
Pittsburgh also determined it wasn’t worth it to trade up from the 164th overall pick in Round 5 to snag him, allowing the Cleveland Browns to take Sanders with the 144th overall pick. Instead, the Steelers took defensive lineman Yahya Black with the 164th selection and then took quarterback Will Howard in Round 6 with the 185th overall pick.
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The pre-draft buzz tying Sanders to the Steelers proved to be off-base. Some members of the club clearly liked him and wanted to take him on Day 3, but there was never enough support from key decision-makers to take that gamble. That likely has a lot to do with how poorly Sanders seemed to handle the whole pre-draft process.
As for Howard, he’s already impressed the Steelers coaching staff with his work ethic since being drafted. He’ll be the third-string quarterback in 2025, assuming Aaron Rodgers signs, but it’s clear that Pittsburgh is happy with the rookie quarterback it chose.
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