When Shedeur Sanders was still on the board with the Pittsburgh Steelers on the clock with the 21st pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, everyone thought it was as close to destiny as you can get. Apparently, Omar Khan doesn't give a damn about destiny, because he instead locked up a replacement for 36-year-old stalwart Cam Heyward by taking Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon in the first round on Thursday.
Not taking Sanders was certainly a surprise, especially given the fact that Mason Rudolph would be the Steelers' starting quarterback if the season started today. Aaron Rodgers' shadow looms over the situation, without question, as the veteran has long and heavily been connected to Pittsburgh. Still, he's not the long-term option that Sanders would be.
Harmon is a phenomenal addition, without question. At Oregon, he was a game-wrecker on the interior and someone who checks all of the boxes to immediately replace the loss of Larry Ogunjobi in the immediate and Heyward in the long-term.
Unfortunately for the former Duck, though, the big story coming out is that the Steelers didn't take Sanders and the once-projected Top 5 pick had already fallen out of the Top 20 and his fall looked to potentially continue potentially out of the first round.
Steelers pass on Shedeur Sanders for Derrick Harmon as QB's draft-day fall gets catastrophic
While there has been talk all week leading up to the draft about teams trading back into the first round for quarterbacks, potentially Sanders or Ole Miss product Jaxson Dart, it doesn't make the reality for the Colorado star any less shocking.
Obviously, the son of Coach Prime has drawn a lot of eyes in a polarizing manner. At the same time, he's a good quarterback! There would've been merit to the Steelers taking him with the 21st pick or even several teams taking him much earlier, including even someone like the Saints at No. 9. The fact that he fell past Pittsburgh feels just plain wild given the talent that he possesses.
It's also always tough to see players, whether they're the same level of fame as Sanders or not, experience a draft-day fall such as this. While Shedeur didn't attend the draft, he's watching from a custom green room and just not hearing his name called. Now, we're all waiting to see how far he actually will fall and, just as importantly, which team stops his slide down the board.
As for the Steelers, though, Harmon is a beast. He flashed elite potential at Oregon and his best days, especially as one of the younger prospects in the class, might still be in front of him. Whether fair or not, though, his biggest accolade immediately after the draft and perhaps for some time beyond that is that he's not Sanders. We'll see how Pittsburgh feels about that fact moving forward in a few years.