Mel Kiper Jr. Blasts Steelers for Bypassing Shedeur Sanders
By selecting defensive tackle Derrick Harmon with the 21st overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers allowed Shedeur Sanders to keep falling down the draft board, and ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. thinks it’s a big mistake.
The enigmatic quarterback’s disastrous night is going to be the biggest story from the first-round tomorrow morning, and the Steelers will take the brunt of blame. With their pick, the Steelers were the last team on the board in need of a starting quarterback.
ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. thinks the Steelers will come to regret their decision and demonstrated that with a couple of bold comparisons.
Just before commissioner Roger Goodell took to the podium, Kiper made one last fiery sales pitch for the Steelers to take Sanders.
“They haven’t won a playoff game in nine years,” he said. “In this division, with [Joe] Burrow and Lamar [Jackson] and the AFC loaded with great quarterbacks, you have Mason Rudolph. And Shedeur is sitting there.”
Kiper said Pittsburgh not having a second-round pick only adds to the jeopardy of bypassing the quarterback position. Although, he said he’d have preferred Sanders to go to the New Orleans Saints with the ninth overall pick.
“If I’m Pittsburgh — Shedeur Sanders — to pass on him — At this stage? At pick 21? Come on.”
After Pittsburgh’s pick, Kiper had Shedeur Sanders as the top player on his “best available” list.
After the Steelers took Harmon, Kiper busted out a list of “old-school pocket passers” who slid in the draft because NFL teams did not respect them. He invoked the names of NFL greats like Dan Marino, Joe Montana and Tom Brady as players who fell on draft night because teams didn’t respect their style.
“The NFL didn’t like them when Johnny Unitas came out of Louisville, and they don’t like them now,” he said.
“All the teams that passed on [Sanders]… are taking a gamble,” added fellow panelist Louis Riddick.
During the pre-draft process, Sanders had visited Pittsburgh, spoke highly of his visit, and even made jokes about a connection with wide receivers DK Metcalf and George Pickens.