The Pittsburgh Steelers’ search for a clear answer under center continues. Even if Aaron Rodgers comes over to Pittsburgh and starts for them in 2025, he’s not the long-term QB option for the Steelers.
This uncertainty by the Steelers about the most important position in football makes it somewhat perplexing that they did not pick a quarterback in the early rounds of the draft.
They drafted Will Howard of the Ohio State Buckeyes in the sixth round, but Pittsburgh could have used a first or second-round pick to get a QB with much better reviews. Pittsburgh also had chances to take Shedeur Sanders, whose controversial slide ended when the Cleveland Browns took him in the fifth round.
The Steelers’ seeming disinclination to take Sanders amid the team’s clear QB need has left many, including Stephen A. Smith of ESPN, perplexed.
“I think there needs to be an investigation as to why they didn’t draft a quarterback,” Smith said in a recent First Take episode. “How you don’t draft a Shedeur Sanders? How you don’t do that?”
Former Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark, meanwhile, responded to Smith: “Here’s what I can tell you about the draft. If he would have fallen to the seventh round, the Steelers weren’t drafting Shedeur Sanders.”
Smith, sounding baffled, asked Clark, “Why?”
“Shedeur Sanders was not going to be picked by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Whatever the evaluation was, whatever decision was made, he was not going to be the quarterback picked, drafted, called by Mike Tomlin over time,” answered Clark.
"If he would've fallen to the 7th round, the Steelers weren't drafting Shedeur Sanders."
@Realrclark25 laid out to @stephenasmith and @MollyQerim what he understood from the Steelers' draft board 😳 pic.twitter.com/UFJ66mdMKH— First Take (@FirstTake) May 15, 2025
No one outside of the Steelers knows for sure why Pittsburgh did take Sanders, despite his availability through multiple rounds. In any case, the Steelers don’t have an inspiring QB room at the moment, with Mason Rudolph viewed as QB1 and Howard and Skylar Thompson behind the pecking order.
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