{"id":88832,"date":"2025-04-25T12:26:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T17:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/omar-khan-rejects-narrative-steelers-passed-on-shedeur-sanders-we-got-the-player-that-we-wanted\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T12:26:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T17:26:00","slug":"omar-khan-rejects-narrative-steelers-passed-on-shedeur-sanders-we-got-the-player-that-we-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/omar-khan-rejects-narrative-steelers-passed-on-shedeur-sanders-we-got-the-player-that-we-wanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Khan rejects narrative Steelers passed on Shedeur Sanders: \u2018We got the player that we wanted\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a glaring hole at quarterback coming into Thursday\u2019s Round 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a><\/strong>. It\u2019s Friday, and the Steelers still have no long-term answer at the most important position on the field. The Steelers had the chance to address the position with pick No. 21. Both Colorado<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s Shedeur Sanders<\/a><\/strong> and Ole Miss<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s Jaxson Dart<\/a><\/strong> were on the board, but Pittsburgh passed. <\/p>\n

General manager Omar Khan<\/strong> instead decided<\/a> to take Oregon<\/a><\/strong> defensive tackle Derrick Harmon<\/a><\/strong>. Despite the outside pressure, Khan said he didn\u2019t feel tempted to select a signal-caller.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on the clock,\u201d Khan said, via Brooke Pryor<\/strong> of ESPN<\/em><\/a>. \u201cWe got the player that we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh let Russell Wilson<\/a><\/strong> and Justin Fields<\/a><\/strong> walk in free agency. Aaron Rodgers<\/a><\/strong> remains a free agent and has given no definitive answer on if he wants to play a 21st NFL<\/a><\/strong> season. The Steelers\u2019 quarterback room is currently made up of Mason Rudolph<\/a><\/strong> and Skylar Thompson<\/a><\/strong>. The Steelers could draft a quarterback in the middle rounds, though it\u2019s important to note they do not own a second-round pick.<\/p>\n

Steelers pass on Shedeur Sanders, go defense in Round 1<\/h2>\n

But Pittsburgh had other needs to address. In the end, they went with the top-rated player left on their board; that ended up being Harmon. Khan said they even fielded several trade offers, but Harmon was a player they weren\u2019t passing up. Head coach Mike Tomlin<\/strong> said they felt an \u201cextreme urgency\u201d to upgrade their defensive line.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme urgency,\u201d Tomlin said. \u201cTo be quite honest with you, there\u2019s no substitute for young talent. You don\u2019t have a chance to fill a quality defense unless you\u2019re stout inside and up front. This is a young guy, man, that has an opportunity to learn from the likes of Cam Heyward<\/a><\/strong> and put his hand in that pile and be a significant contributor for us for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harmon spent the majority of his college career at\u00a0Michigan State<\/strong><\/a>. In 2021, Harmon redshirted but appeared in four games. He played in all 12 games in 2022 and finished with 30 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Harmon played in all 12 games in 10 starts and tallied 40 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. The 21-year-old transferred to Oregon last year and had his best season, posting 45 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, four pass breakups and two forced fumbles. Harmon was selected to The<\/em>\u00a0Associated Press<\/em>\u00a0All-America Second Team and All-Big Ten Conference Third Team.<\/p>\n

The post Omar Khan rejects narrative Steelers passed on Shedeur Sanders: \u2018We got the player that we wanted\u2019<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a glaring hole at quarterback coming into Thursday\u2019s Round 1 of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}