The Steelers pass on Shedeur Sanders to select defensive tackle Derrick Harmon in the NFL draft
PITTSBURGH (AP) — As the Pittsburgh Steelers prepared for the NFL draft, head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan’s minds kept drifting back to that ugly night in Baltimore three months ago when Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the rest of the Ravens ran Pittsburgh’s overmatched defense right out of the playoffs.
So while the Steelers remain very much in need of a quarterback of the future, they opted to address an equally pressing need with perhaps a more certain answer with the 21st overall pick in the draft, selecting Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon on Thursday night in hopes he’ll provide a much-needed jolt of talent and youth.
“He has Steeler DNA,” Tomlin said.
So much so that Khan opted to hold onto the 21st pick instead of trading out of it to acquire more draft capital. While the phones rang plenty inside the Steelers’ war room in the minutes before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell read Harmon’s name, Khan kept coming back to the list of players they needed to take if they were available. And Harmon’s name was on it.
“At the end of the day, he was just one of the players that we weren’t going to trade away from,” Khan said.
The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Harmon spent three seasons at Michigan State before transferring to Oregon, where he blossomed into a disruptive force. Harmon was a second-team All-American last season while finishing with five sacks and 10 1/2 tackles for loss for the Ducks.
“We’ve got us a big man that’s capable of being significant for us in all circumstances,” Tomlin said. “And that’s what you want when you’re talking about the first round of the draft.”
Especially when you play in the AFC North and have to face Jackson and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow twice a year. Jackson and the Ravens toyed with the Steelers while rolling up 299 yards rushing during their playoff meeting, a staggering number for a franchise that has long prided itself on its toughness.
Asked if the defense’s play down the stretch and in the playoffs in particular fueled the decision to grab Harmon, Tomlin nodded.
“The tape is the tape,” he said. “And so we’re behaving appropriately. You don’t have a chance to have a top-notch defense if you’re not smashing the run and getting to the quarterback.”
Pittsburgh believes Harmon can do both. The last time the Steelers took a defensive lineman in the first round was 14 years ago when they selected Cam Heyward. The now 35-year-old Heyward is still going strong. He earned his fourth All-Pro nod last fall following a resurgent season in which he collected eight sacks.
In Harmon, the Steelers believe they’ve found a player cut from the same cloth. Tomlin was drawn not just to Harmon’s size but also his intangibles.
“He’s comfortable in his shoes,” Tomlin said. “(He) has a desire to be great.”
Harmon believes that desire comes from his mother Tiffany Saine, who has endured a series of health setbacks, including multiple brain surgeries, in recent years. Saine was unable to attend her son’s draft party, spending it in the hospital instead. Harmon planned to visit her late Thursday and whisper in her ear that he’d made the NFL.
“After all those brain surgeries, man, she did not give up,” Harmon said. “She still went to practice, still went to work.”
The example that Saine set stuck with Harmon as he journeyed from Michigan State to Oregon.
“In the back of my head, from the beginning of my college career I (kept thinking) how can I (not) keep going if I’m tired? I’m injured? Whatever it is,” Harmon said. “Why (can’t) I keep going if she can get up and she keeps going after brain surgery. This is our resilience and our hard work, really. ”
Pittsburgh’s decision to pass on both Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart — both of whom came in for pre-draft visits — likely props the door open even more for Aaron Rodgers to sign with the Steelers to join a room that at the moment has just two players in Mason Rudolph and Skyler Thompson.
Rodgers visited the Steelers’ facility in March but the four-time NFL MVP is taking his time before deciding whether to play a 21st season. Tomlin declined to set any sort of hard deadline on Rodgers, only saying in general that he’d prefer to have everyone interested in being a Steeler in 2025 be there when training camp opens in late July.
Count Harmon among that group. He’ll join a team that felt “extreme urgency” to find a player to help its defense regain some of the swagger it lost during a late-season swoon.
“I think the ceiling is really high for him”, Khan said. “We’ll see where it goes.”
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