Would Steelers have drafted Will Howard over Shedeur Sanders?

Numerous stories leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft suggested that Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith supported adding Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders to the roster. 

Thus, some members of the football community were surprised when the Steelers passed on Sanders multiple times before the club took a flier on developmental prospect Will Howard out of Ohio State in the sixth round of the draft.

During a Thursday appearance on Pittsburgh sports radio station 93.7 The Fan, Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette addressed whether or not the club would have drafted Sanders at pick No. 185 had he not been taken by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round. 

"I think probably Howard," Fittipaldo said about which signal-caller Pittsburgh would have drafted in such a scenario, Steelers Depot's Jake Brockhoff shared. "I think they thought Shedeur was a good kid. They weren't convinced he was ever going to be a starting-level player for them."

Retired player and current NFL analyst Merril Hoge and famous quarterback coach Quincy Avery are among those who believe Sanders could set an "organization back another two or three years" because he's little more than "a backup at best" at the highest level. Additionally, how Sanders handled the predraft process impacted how teams viewed him on April 24. 

As much as the Steelers may have wanted to avoid potential distractions caused by having a big-name backup in their quarterback room, league executives and analysts have noted that Sanders is a better prospect than Howard this spring. Nevertheless, Fittipaldo suggested Tomlin and Smith preferred working with Howard as the team waits for Aaron Rodgers to decide his plans for the 2025 season.

"Will Howard's gonna come in here, he's gonna grind, he's gonna put his head down. He's not gonna mind being a No. 3 for a year," Fittipaldo continued. "If you put that on Shedeur Sanders' plate, I think there's a lot of questions about how that guy would handle it."

Sanders may have to handle beginning springtime workouts as Cleveland's QB4 behind Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and 2025 third-round pick Dillon Gabriel. If Sanders goes on to prove the Steelers wrong as a Browns player, he could give one of Cleveland's division rivals plenty of nightmares over the next decade or so.