The Pittsburgh Steelers never planned to draft a quarterback in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. In fact, Shedeur Sanders apparently was barely on the franchise’s radar even amid their search for a signal-caller after Justin Fields signed with New York in March.
When the Cleveland Browns took Sanders in the fifth round, many outside of the Steelers’ organization wondered about their game plan at the position. Pittsburgh selected Will Howard in the following round as the understudy for Mason Rudolph prior to this month’s free agency decision from Aaron Rodgers.
“I think mostly, it had to do with [the Steelers] didn’t have a grade on him [Sanders] within the first five rounds,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray iFittipaldo said Thursday on Cleveland’s 93.7 The Fan. “I think the second part of that equation, and this was never really discussed, you’ve seen some leaks with other teams across the NFL.
“Now, a lot of people just didn’t want to deal with Deion Sanders and what that might be down the road after he’s done at Colorado. So, I don’t know if the Steelers felt that same way, but they did not have a top-five grade. A top-five round grade on Shedeur Sanders, and that’s why they went the route they went.”
Sanders, who has been cited twice for speeding since the draft, is battling three other quarterbacks on Cleveland’s roster ahead of training camp, including offseason veteran signing Joe Flacco.
From “sand-bagging” pre-draft interviews at the NFL Combine to Deion Sanders’ effect, a little bit of everything in accumulation contributed to Sanders’ fall to Day 3, according to CBS Sports senior NFL analyst Jonathan Jones:
All of these things began to add up for teams. And I’m not saying that that’s right that it added up for teams. What I’m saying is that it did, clearly, add up for teams. Because you’re not going to tell me that the guy who was on the field the last two years for Colorado wasn’t good enough to be selected by the end of the second night — wasn’t good enough to be selected over a Dillon Gabriel, with all due respect to Dillon Gabriel. This is clearly a way for the NFL, and its teams, to let [Shedeur] and anyone else after him know, you can’t comport yourself in this way moving forward.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry said after the draft that Cleveland never had a plan to select two quarterbacks, but Sanders offered value in the fifth round.
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