Former NFL defensive lineman Chris Canty believes the Pittsburgh Steelers will regret passing on Shedeur Sanders. Sanders, who went in the fifth round to the Cleveland Browns, was heavily linked to the Steelers in the NFL Draft process, and they still have yet to land a veteran quarterback.
Canty says that with Sanders in the AFC North, this could escalate to the worst error of the entire Mike Tomlin era in Pittsburgh.
“Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have a legitimate starting NFL quarterback on their roster, so it got me to thinking,” Canty said on “Unsportsmanlike”. “If Shedeur Sanders starts the majority of the games this season in Cleveland, is not drafting him the biggest mistake in the Mike Tomlin era of Steelers football? Listen, if the Pittsburgh Steelers passed on Shedeur Sanders and he ends up being the franchise quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, a division rival, that is an absolute embarrassment. That is an embarrassment.”
That statement is bold since the Steelers passed on Lamar Jackson for Terrell Edmunds. That one will be hard to beat.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Steelers insider Gerry Dulac appeared on the ‘Rich Eisen Show’, and explained just why the team decided to pass on Sanders.
“Quarterback was not going to be a priority...They are all in in 2026 on moving up and trying to get what they believe to be their next franchise quarterback or certainly their starter for a number of years,” Dulac said. “And so, I think their plan all along has been geared that way. I know obviously the Steelers thought he had a nice skill set and everything, but...I never got the impression that he was high on their list to draft Rich, at any point. At any point.”
General manager Omar Khan said the board fell the way it did, which allowed the Steelers to wait on a quarterback. The longer that wait went on, the clearer it became that the Steelers did not love this quarterback class.
“You never really know. I think we talked about the other day, we’re guessing like everyone else. You just don’t know, and it just sort of fell that way,” Khan said.
Khan added that after the team selected Derrick Harmon, they “got their guy,” and that was not a slight towards Sanders or Jaxson Dart.
It also signals the team likely feels comfortable in their standing with Aaron Rodgers. Tomlin said the team had positive conversations with Rodgers, and it certainly seems things are tending towards him joining the Steelers.