Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard I was going day two regardless, so I was thinking round two or three and that obviously didn\u2019t happen.\u201d\u00a0Sawyer said on Not Just Football with Cam Heyward.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI woke up like an hour before day three started and my agent is calling me telling me the Steelers are trying to trade up.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckily, Pittsburgh was still able to land Sawyer, who came at a great value ranked as the No. 67 overall player on the\u00a0NFL Mock Draft Database<\/a>\u00a0consensus big board.<\/p>\n The 6-foot-4, 260-pound defender recorded 59 tackles (25 solo), nine sacks, three forced fumbles, one interception and six passes defensed while leading the Buckeyes to win the\u00a02025 College Football Playoff National Championship.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n He was also named the Cotton Bowl defensive MVP after strip sacking Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and returning it for a 83-yard touchdown to seal the game.<\/p>\n Jack Sawyer, Ohio State Athletics<\/p>\n However, it was still a surprising pick with the Steelers outside linebacker room already loaded with the likes of T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig.<\/p>\n Many believe Sawyer could get lost in the shuffle as a result, but he is solely focused on helping the team in any way he can.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just so excited to add value anywhere I can,\u201d\u00a0he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sawyer will likely start by helping to fill the void left by veteran Preston Smith, who served as Pittsburgh\u2019s fourth edge rusher in 2024.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In four seasons at Ohio State, Sawyer registered 144 tackles (68 solo), 23 sacks, six forced fumbles, one interception and 10 passes defensed.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Steelers Now<\/a>: Steelers Tried Trading Up For Ohio State Star in 2025 NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers almost traded up for an Ohio State star who was falling during the 2025 NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[80,6310,344,7,295,6,15,6313,1446,21723,21373,57,1849,5226],"class_list":{"0":"post-238266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-alex-highsmith","10":"tag-cam-heyward","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jack-sawyer","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-nick-herbig","16":"tag-ohio-state","17":"tag-ohio-state-athletics","18":"tag-ohio-state-star","19":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","20":"tag-quinn-ewers","21":"tag-t-j-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114920950704515345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pittsburgh](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/159ecea6eafbc9e2e53eac077f8ff1e4.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n