Steelers Draft Class Grade? I give it a B…and an A

Their strategy is starting to become quite clear

With the 21^st pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers…did not select Shedeur Sanders, quarterback, Colorado.

Thirty other teams chose to do the same thing, passing on the much-hyped Buffaloes star to address other needs. No, this post will not be about Sanders, nor will it be about Sanders’ biggest fan in the draft pundit class, Mel Kiper Jr., whose televised antics became as much a part of the draft as Sanders’ slide itself.

The only reason I mention Sanders in the context of this Steelers draft is because once they passed on him the first time, it became clear that we had all, to at least some degree, fallen victim to a classic draft smokescreen. Once they passed on him a second time, it became clear that the team probably didn’t like him much as a prospect, even a developmental one.

Once they passed on him a third time, a cock crowed – wait a minute, my mistake, wrong story. Once they passed on him the third time, it became very clear that quarterback wasn’t much of a priority for Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and Andy Weidl. Getting bigger was.

That’s where the “B” grade comes in. B for Beef. B for Bigger. B for Bully. “Better” remains to be seen, but the strategy is clear. The Steelers wanted to add bulk, and they did. It’s the third-straight draft where they’ve done this (more on that in a moment).

I give them credit for this strategy, too, because it seems like the league is on the precipice of a true shift back to big, physical offenses that run the ball at smaller, faster defenses geared to stop the pass. This is not to say that quarterbacks will suddenly become devalued, like they were to a degree in the 1990s and 2000s, but it’s clear that the trend line is shifting towards a more run-oriented style.

This was also underscored, for what it’s worth, by how many running backs were on most pre-draft Top-100 prospect lists. The number was usually 10 or 11, depending on whose guide you were reading.

It’s nice to think that perhaps a team that has seemed behind the times far too often is actually at the front of the philosophical shift, for once.

That brings me to the second grade, the “A”. That’s for “Andy Weidl,” whose fingerprints are all over these selections. Weidl, you’ve probably heard 100,000 times, helped Howie Roseman build the Eagles, and is a firm believer in fortifying the trenches and building a quality roster from the inside out.

Khan is the general manager, but Weidl, his assistant, makes the team’s draft board. It’s also quite clear now, three drafts into his Steelers tenure, that Weidl also wields legitimate clout when the team’s brain trust is deciding who to pick.

In 2023, the first three picks were OT, CB, DT. In 2024, OT, C, WR. This year? DT, RB, EDGE. Not only that, but other than Roman Wilson, every single pick was a big guy. Joey Porter was a big corner. Jack Sawyer is a converted defensive end. Keeanu Benton? Big dude. I could go on and on. Weidl is trying to make the Steelers bigger, meaner and better in the trenches.

This was a particularly heartening trend this year, and it shows that the team learned from its Kenny Pickett mistake. It was a notoriously weak quarterback class, only marginally better than the disaster that was 2022’s crop, and instead of reaching for Shedeur Sanders, or Jaxson Dart, Pittsburgh stayed true to the plan.

(While we’re at it, it’s pretty clear that while Tomlin has plenty of input into who the team drafts, he’s not the boogeyman that people think he is as far as pounding the table and overruling everyone else in the room. In fact, he seems quite happy to feed into lazy narratives that he likes a particular high-profile quarterback in the draft. See: Malik Willis in 2022, and Sanders this year.)

It isn’t guaranteed that this strategy works out for the Steelers. These players have to be coached up. The Eagles have a great staff that seems to get the most out of their picks. Pittsburgh also needs to nail the quarterback position in next year’s draft; it will be a stronger class, but they’ll still need to make the right pick.

We’ll see how all of that plays out, but let’s at least savor this fact: The Steelers have a plan, one that has been very successful for other teams in the league, including the defending champions, and they’re sticking to it. That might not be much, but it’s not nothing. And I think it’s a very good sign moving forward.