Before weighing in on the matter of the Steelers Draft, let me begin with a story that I tell every year at this time.
Sometime back in the pre-Chuck Noll era of Steelers Football, and shortly after the NFL Draft of the given year, back the the draft was not a three day nationally televised extravaganza, my dad runs into Steelers DT Ben Magee (ask your parents or grandparents, kids) at some downtown Pittsburgh lunch counter. "Hey, Ben," Frank asks "what do you think of those guys the Steelers drafted?"
Ben replies "You don't know nothin' about them until they get into camp."
True then, true today, but with that in mind, here are your newest Pittsburgh Steelers.
Derrick Harmon certainly fills a need on the defensive line, first, to play alongside Cam Hayward, and then to ultimately replace him. So, good pick - if he can play at the next level.
The Steelers certainly need a running back now that Najee Harris is gone, and Kaleb Johnson is big and fast and was the best RB in the Big Ten. So, good pick - if he can play at the next level.
Of the other five guys, the only ones that I can say I am familiar with are the two kids from Ohio State, LB Jack Sawyer and QB Will Howard. We all saw a lot of Ohio State as they marched through the College Football Playoffs on their way to the National Championship. I distinctly remember Sawyer being all over the field and a dominating defensive presence during those games. Imagining him playing like that alongside Edge (when did "Edge" become an official position in football? Just curious) guys like TJ Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig is certainly an exciting prospect.
I also remember watching QB Will Howard and being impressed with his leadership and abilities as he led the Buckeyes in the CFP. I think that I said at one point to someone, "Don't know if his abilities will carry over to the NFL, but if they do, he'd look good in a Steelers uniform." Or words to that effect. And hey, wouldn't it be something if an overlooked Big Ten quarterback who doesn't get drafted until the sixth round after a half dozen or so other quarterbacks get drafted before him turns out to be terrific and lead his team to multiple Super Bowls. Doesn't seem likely, but it HAS happened before.
As for the other three guys, Yahya Black, Carson Bruener, and Donte Kent, who knows? I sure do not.I can say that Black's first name is pronounced "Why-Yay", I looked it up, and it is very cool that Carson Bruener is Mark Bruener's son.
Let's hope that the scouts and evaluators had it right with all of these guys, and that the coaches will be able to coach 'em up.
We'll start finding out once "they get into camp."
THE story of the 2025 Draft, though, was the plummeting of Shedeur Sanders all the way down to the fifth round. Personally, when I saw that Shedeur had a custom made "Draft Room" built in the Sanders home in Texas, and saw that the predominant feature of the decor were large dollar signs (not to mention that dollar sign necklace he was wearing), I was glad to see that the Steelers, much to the disgust of Mel Kiper Jr., took a pass on him in the first round and in subsequent rounds.
Then he ends up being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round, who had already drafted a QB, Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, in an earlier round. The Browns now have five quarterbacks: 40 year Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Gabriel, the injured massage-aholic Deshaun Watson, and Sanders, whose father, Coach Prime himself, has already indicated that he will be involved in his son's progress, What a circus there is going to be in Cleveland this season. It just might be the Brownsiest thing that the Browns have done since that came back into the league in 1999, and that is not an easy bar to clear.
Speaking of Kiper, a delightful sideshow to L'affaire Sheduer was watching Kiper get completely discombobulated and "disgusted" (his word), and completely lose his shit as Sanders, the "best quarterback in this draft", kept falling into the abyss. It was hilarious. Oh, and it doesn't take much internet research to see that in previous years, the "best quarterback available in this year's draft" have been guys like Brady Quinn, Ryan Leaf, Jimmy Claussen, and Will Levis. WILL LEVIS!!
(Full Disclosure: I only watched the Draft up until the Steelers selection of Henry in the first round on Thursday night.)
Of course, it is hard for a Steelers follower to cast stones at another team's quarterback situation, given what is facing the Black and Gold at this point in time, which is Mason Rudolph, Skyler Thompson, and Will Howard, as the team continues to do this odd dance with Aaron Rodgers. That is a topic that will be discussed when and if the Long Rodgers National Nightmare comes to an end.
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