Insider Reveals Why Steelers Didn't Draft Shedeur Sanders

The Pittsburgh Steelers chose to wait until the sixth-round of the 2025 NFL Draft to select their rookie quarterback, adding Ohio State's Will Howard to an uncertain QB room. Shedeur Sanders was on the board right up until the fifth round, but even as the top prospect continued to fall, the Steelers didn't have intentions of drafting him.

Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show about the Steelers draft, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette insider Gerry Dulac revealed why Pittsburgh wasn't interested in adding Shedeur.

"Despite what all the national people thought, they did not intend to draft him," Dulac said. "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."

The confusion around Sanders' slide never died down and remains one of the biggest mysteries of the NFL Draft. The Colorado quarterback was believed to be the second-best quarterback in the draft class but somehow got passed by every team four times before drafted.

For the Steelers, they seemingly have their eyes on a quarterback early in the draft next year. They did bring Sanders in for a pre-draft visit, but they did the same with a few other names throughout the process. According to Dulac, when it was all said and done, Pittsburgh had other mid-round QBs ahead of Sanders in the class.

"I could tell you there were other quarterbacks they were more interested in in the middle to late rounds," Dulac said.

Pittsburgh will hope Howard becomes a player who can compete for a starting job a year from now. For this season, they still believe Aaron Rodgers is on his way to the team at some point, and will have the four-time MVP as their starting quarterback this season.