Pittsburgh – While the indecision of Aaron Rodgers lingered in the repechage week and the Sander Sanders stock continued to fall, the speculation swirled that the Pittsburgh steelers could have the opportunity to address their future in the quarterrier if the colorado signator was slipped into their range.
This false hypothetical project turned into reality Thursday evening. With the Steelers on the clock at No. 21, Sanders was still on the board after being bypassed by the Browns of Cleveland, the Giants of New York and New Orleans.
However, instead of making a large swing on a polarizing QB, the director general Omar Khan and the company stuck to their patient approach and focused on the trenches by writing the defensive platform of Oregon Derrick Harmon. In doing so, the Steelers addressed one of the flagrant holes on the list with a player who is robust against the race and, no doubt, the best interior pass of his class.
Khan said his phone rings with business possibilities. But Harmon was one of the players that the team identified as too good to be transmitted, especially after Kenneth Grant of Michigan and Walter Nolen, Ole Miss, left the painting, leaving Harmon as the last of these three.
“You have heard me of the big guys,” said Khan, who selected offensive lines in the first round in each of his first two drafts. “This does not only apply to the offensive side, of course.
For a team that wants to win matches on the melee line, the help of the defensive line was justified from the start of the offseason. Then, when the Steelers cut Larry Ogunjobi and failed to find a replacement of a departure caliber in a free agency, a priority turned into a necessity. Coach Mike Tomlin said the Steelers targeted a defensive line player with an “extreme emergency”.
“There is no substitute for young talents,” said Tomlin. “You cannot put in place a quality defense unless you are robust inside and at the front.”
Harmon, originally from Detroit, started his career at Michigan State, where he played various positions in the front of four men of the Spartans. He was transferred to Oregon before the 2024 season and had a year in small groups in the strange front of the Ducks, totaling 10.5 plated for the loss, five bags and two forced escapes. Among the interior defensive line players, he led the FBS with 55 pressures.
This passing potential is essential in the modern NFL and for Steelers. Tomlin has spoke several times about how the steelers are in their sub-packages for around 80% of snaps, which makes the nose attacker a position being suppressed.
“He’s a tall man,” said Tomlin. “He is robust against the race. His curriculum vitae and his band confirm it. But it is also a major and major threat in terms of obtaining quarterrier, probably at the top of this draft class in terms of interior precipitating men. We had a great man capable of being significant for us in all circumstances. This is what you want when you talk about the first round of the project.”
Given his versatility and his recovery position, Harmon will probably enter the right place in Ogunjobi as 4- and five techniques in the basic defense. The starting defensive line will probably put Keeanu Benton on the nose, playing between Cameron Heyward and Harmon. In the short term, Harmon will be a running mate with Heyward. In the long term, he could be part of the plan while the Steelers think of life after Heyward, who will be 36 years old in May.
By coincidence, during the NFL screening combination, Harmon was invited to which defensive line players he has in high esteem. Heyward was the first player he mentioned. Two years ago, Tomlin challenged Heyward to play a mentorate role with Benton. Now Heyward will have another apprentice who is hungry for knowledge.
“My first reflection process when I received the call was:” I will be able to choose Cam’s brain. Be under his wing “,” said Harmon at a conference call with the Steelers reporters. “It could be my veterinarian now. I can really learn from him, because he has always done this, because I was a baby. There would be no other way I want him.”
Harmon called his “Sweet-Brew” draft evening. He became emotional by speaking of his mother, Tiffany Healthy, who is currently hospitalized and on support for life. Healthy has endured brain surgeries “seven or eight” while Harmon grew, he said. Healthy suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body when Harmon was a first -year student in the state of Michigan in 2022. Harmon said that his resilience model is something that inspired his trip.
“Dude, she did not give up,” said Harmon. “She has always taken me to train, has always been working. Always back in my head since the start of my university career, “Why can’t I continue?” If I am tired, I am injured, anything, why can’t I continue, if it can get up and continue to continue brain surgery?
While the future of the defensive line now seems brilliant with a player that Tomlin said “A Steeler DNA”, the Steelers still do not have an obvious starting quarterrier, without signature on a dotted line of rodgers, nor a young quarter who could start in the long term. This makes QB a position to continue monitoring when day 2 begins – and beyond.
After being not drafted on day 1, Sanders stayed on the board, while Miami’s Cam Ward and Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart were the only QBS recovered. If Sanders continued to fall, he could once again land in the Steelers chain, especially in an exchange scenario. Pittsburgh has no choice of second round after exchanging for DK Metcalf, and its next selection is n ° 83, but the quarter -landing points can be particularly unpredictable, putting anything on the table.
The Steelers learned a hard lesson in 2022 which, just because a team needs a QB does not mean that the answer is there in the first round. If they were not sold enough on Sanders to press the trigger of Tour 1, it is worth wondering where he stands on their set and when they would feel worth a choice of recovery. Even if he slips around 3, there are only five choices after Metcalf’s trade.
It seems more likely that the steelers will look for a ball carrier around 3 and target a quarter of a quarter on day 3. They made large duties on the signalers like Tyler Shough from Louisville, Will Howard de l’Ohio State, Kyle McCord de Syracuse, Riley Leonard de Texas and Riley Leonard. From this group, Howard and Leonard are two to monitor.
There is also the commercial market. The Falcons quarterrier Kirk Cousins wanted to wait to give up his non-exchange clause before the first round, hoping to avoid a situation like last year, when Atlanta resulted in a quarter-back during the months after having collected cousins to a four-year contract. Although the end of the 2024 cousins season can take a Steelers break, and there are considerable financial details to work, if Atlanta is willing to eat a large part of cousins of $ 27.5 million in 2025, it is possible that the steelers can rotate rodgers and exchange cousins.
That said, there is still optimism within the organization of the Steelers that Rodgers will eventually sign with Pittsburgh. The next few days could tell us how long the Steelers are ready to be patient.
(Photos of SheDer Sanders, on the left, and Derrick Harmon: Ed Zurga, Steve Dykes / Getty Images)
