{"id":40779,"date":"2025-05-11T04:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T04:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/40779\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T04:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T04:18:10","slug":"nfl-reporter-reveals-why-the-pittsburgh-steelers-passed-on-shedeur-sanders-on-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/40779\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL reporter reveals why the Pittsburgh Steelers passed on Shedeur Sanders on Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many around the NFL thought the Pittsburgh<\/a> Steelers<\/a> would take quarterback Shedeur Sanders<\/a> with the 21st overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Instead, Pittsburgh passed on him in multiple rounds and that reportedly has to do with the thought process in the front office.<\/p>\n

Senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler of ESPN<\/a> disclosed this week that while the Steelers were \u2018comfortable\u2019 with Sanders as a \u2018distributing point guard\u2019 type of quarterback, they ultimately chose to pass on him entirely. That\u2019s because of a split in the organization on his fit.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Related: Reporter names \u2018viable\u2019 Pittsburgh Steelers QB option if Aaron Rodgers retires<\/a><\/p>\n

As Fowler writes, the Steelers simply didn\u2019t view Sanders as a \u2018slam dunk pick\u2019 even in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. While the club debated using the 123rd overall pick on him, it was ultimately decided that he wasn\u2019t worth the selection.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh also determined it wasn\u2019t worth it to trade up from the 164th overall pick in Round 5 to snag him, allowing the Cleveland Browns<\/a> to take Sanders with the 144th overall pick. Instead, the Steelers took defensive lineman Yahya Black with the 164th selection and then took quarterback Will Howard in Round 6 with the 185th overall pick.<\/p>\n

Related: NFL execs explain why Shedeur Sanders dropped in 2025 NFL Draft<\/a><\/p>\n

The pre-draft buzz tying Sanders to the Steelers proved to be off-base. Some members of the club clearly liked him and wanted to take him on Day 3, but there was never enough support from key decision-makers to take that gamble. That likely has a lot to do with how poorly Sanders seemed to handle the whole pre-draft process.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

As for Howard, he\u2019s already impressed<\/a> the Steelers coaching staff with his work ethic since being drafted. He\u2019ll be the third-string quarterback in 2025, assuming Aaron Rodgers<\/a> signs, but it\u2019s clear that Pittsburgh is happy with the rookie quarterback it chose.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Insider explains what it would take for Shedeur Sanders to be cut<\/a><\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many around the NFL thought the Pittsburgh Steelers would take quarterback Shedeur Sanders with the 21st overall pick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1586,54,7,14620,6388,6,15,520,17,426,2183,2085],"class_list":{"0":"post-40779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-cleveland-browns","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-imagn-imagesjeff-lange","12":"tag-jeremy-fowler","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-pittsburgh","16":"tag-shedeur-sanders","17":"tag-steelers","18":"tag-will-howard","19":"tag-yahya-black"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114487276640059990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40779","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=40779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}