The Steelers, like other QB-needy teams, shocked the NFL world when they passed on selecting Shedeur Sanders not once, not twice — but on three separate occasions. According to one insider, there was a surprising reason why Sanders isn’t calling the Steel City home.
Jeremy Fowler, a prominent and long-time ESPN insider, explained that a disagreement within Pittsburgh’s draft war room is ultimately why the Steelers chose to pass on drafting Sanders:
“The Steelers were comfortable with Shedeur Sanders as a distributing point guard type, which makes it a mild surprise they didn’t take him with their fourth-round pick. To borrow another basketball analogy, those inside the Steelers’ building did not reach a consensus on Sanders as a slam dunk pick. But the debate was close enough to justify taking him.”
This lack of “consensus” is surprising, as HC Mike Tomlin spoke very highly of Sanders during the pre-draft process — but one could argue that selecting Jack Sawyer in Round 4 was more valuable to the Steelers than the baggage that came with drafting the Colorado Buffaloes QB prospect.
Will the Steelers regret letting Sanders fall to the Browns in Round 5 — or will the young QB’s attitude prove that Cleveland made a mistake the other 31 NFL teams were wise to avoid?