2025 NFL Draft Steelers Analysis
Saunders: For Better or Worse, Steelers GM Omar Khan Is Sticking to the Plan
PITTSBURGH — By drafting Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday, the Pittsburgh Steelers stuck to the plan — for better or worse.
Ever since general manager Omar Khan took over in advance of the 2023 offseason, the Steelers have been following a specific blueprint for rebuilding the franchise. They’re starting with the trenches.
Khan and assistant general manager Andy Weidl helped select four offensive linemen over the first four rounds of the 2023 and 2024 drafts, adding tackles Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu, center Zach Frazier and guard Mason McCormick — a complete revamp of that unit.
Next on the checklist was the defensive line, which the Steelers did not get to in the 2024 draft, making it an obvious candidate for a selection in 2025 as early as this time last year.
“You guys have heard me talk about the big guys, and it just doesn’t apply to the offense side, obviously,” Khan said on Thursday. “Same thing. Defensive side is an opportunity, and those big guys, they are not easy to find.”
If that was the plan last summer, it was taken a step forward with some urgency at the end of the 2024 season, as the Steelers defense wilted under the pressure of three games in 11 days toward the close of the regular season and gave up 200 yards rushing to Derrick Henry in the playoffs.
“Extreme urgency to be quite honest with you,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “There’s no substitute for young talent. You don’t have a chance to fill a quality defense unless you’re stout up front. … The tape is the tape, and so we’re behaving appropriately. You don’t have a chance to have a top-notch defense unless you’re smashing the run and getting after the quarterback, and this is a guy whose resume says he’s capable of contributing in both areas.”
When the Steelers started the pre-draft process at the 2025 Senior Bowl, that urgency was evident. Even though Harmon wasn’t there, it was the start of an obvious obsession with the position the Steelers haven’t drafted in the first round since taking Cam Heyward in 2011.
That continued at the 2025 NFL Combine, when they first met with Harmon. During NFL free agency, two things happened. First, the team released Larry Ogunjobi, turning a big future need into an acute one, as well. Secondly, the Khan appeared to find a path forward for addressing the team’s other big-picture need at quarterback.
Khan navigated the free agency period with an eye toward maximizing the team’s potential compensatory pick return in the 2026 NFL Draft, giving himself the ammunition he’ll need to trade up in what appears to be a quarterback-rich draft class. That draft also happens to be taking place in Pittsburgh, where Khan will be able to select the team’s next franchise quarterback in front of its own fans.
As little as a month ago, the plan seemed pretty evident. The Steelers were taking at least one defensive tackle this year — they very well might not be done with that position in this draft class — and stocking up on future draft picks to help land a quarterback next year.
Then, things got weird. The Steelers fumbled their attempts to secure a short-term solution at quarterback, letting Justin Fields walk to the New York Jets when he was offered more money than they wanted to spend. The relationship between the team and Russell Wilson had cratered so much that after Fields was off the table, they pivoted to Aaron Rodgers instead of bringing Wilson back. Rodgers remains a free agent.
With just Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson under contract on the eve of the draft, the Steelers’ need at quarterback became significantly more acute.
At the same time the Steelers were scrambling to find a starter, Shedeur Sanders started to slide down draft boards. The Colorado starter was considered, for most of the pre-draft process, a likely top-five pick, with the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants considered the most likely landing spots.
But neither team seemed enamored with Sanders through the pre-draft process. The New Orleans Saints seemed to prefer Jaxson Dart, and ended up not drafting a quarterback at all at No. 9, despite the injury to starter Derek Carr.
It started to look more plausible that Sanders could fall all the way to the Steelers at No. 21. So the Steelers did some due diligence. Despite skipping the Colorado pro day, they brought Sanders in for a visit to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, one that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin gushed over in his pre-draft press conference.
Which led to some legitimate debate about the team’s course of action. Should the Steelers stay the course they started on and draft the best defensive linemen available at No. 21, or should they shift gears and pivot to Sanders?
It depended on who you asked, both among the Steelers fanbase, and also from inside the Steelers organization, where dissenting views certainly existed even after the decision to go with Harmon was made.
Quarterback is a big deal. The Steelers barely have one. They just let one of the better quarterback prospects that’s been available to them in years go by the wayside. Even though Harmon himself is very much a safe, high-floor pick, there’s risk in letting a bird in the hand go at the game’s most important position.
But Khan seemed sure of the choice in the immediate aftermath.
“We were on the clock and we got the player that we wanted,” he said.
The pick will ultimately be judged with hindsight. In the moment, for better or for worse, all we can do is acknowledge that the Steelers have a plan, and for now, they’re sticking to it.