Steelers Get Front Row Seat for Shedeur Sanders vs. Bo Nix

The Pittsburgh Steelers were the only team to send a scout to No. 10 Oregon vs. No. 19 Colorado on Saturday at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, according to Matt Prehm of 247Sports. Prehm didn’t disclose the name of the scout, but presumably it was longtime West Coast scout Mark Bruner, or Kelvin Fisher, who spent last year scouting the West.

Oregon destroyed Colorado, 42-6, handing the Buffalos their first loss of the season. Oregon backed up their talk, as head coach Dan Lanning blasted Colorado in his pregame speech: ‘They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins.”

Assumably the Steelers had a scout at the Oregon-Colorado game to see Colorado star quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who’s flying up draft boards for the 2024 NFL Draft. Colorado head coach Deion Sanders said his son Sheadeur won’t be heading to the draft in 2024, however, as he doesn’t want him to take backseat to USC quarterback Caleb Williams. Sanders is the only noteworthy player from Colorado, but Oregon has top-flight prospects that include quarterback Bo Nix, wide receiver Troy Franklin, and defensive end Brandon Dorlus. It’s still early in the season, but Kenny Pickett has struggled mightily. The Steelers might just be doing their due diligence if Pickett isn’t the quarterback for the future.

Nix passed for 276 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another in Oregon’s rout on Colorado. Sanders passed for just 159 yards as Oregon sacked him seven times. It was the first game this year that Sanders didn’t light up the stat sheet. Heading into Saturday’s game, Sanders passed for 1,251 yards and 10 touchdowns, completing nearly 79% of his passes while throwing it over 42 times in each of Colorado’s opening three games. In Colorado’s upset road win at TCU, Sanders threw for 510 yards and completed 80.9% of his passes.

Sanders and Williams will face off against each other on Sept. 30 when Colorado hosts USC. The Steelers and a bunch of other teams should have scouts at the game to see the two highly talented quarterbacks. It was kind of surprising that the Steelers were the only team to have representation at the Colorado-Oregon game, but maybe the rest of the league was just waiting for next week’s showdown.

According to Christopher Carter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Steelers along with the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tennessee Titans have scouts at the Pitt-North Carolina game.