Steelers Now
During an appearance on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick Derrick Harmon provided some in-depth details on his first interaction with Mike Tomlin, which occurred at the NFL Scouting Combine.
“Actually, my first visit, I think like everyone in that room was right next to each other. I ran into (the) Pittsburgh interview. I shake everybody’s hand, like, ‘How are y’all doing?’ I’m like overamped to do this interview. He’s like. ‘Nice to meet you, I love your energy, but listen, this is not you’re first meeting. Go ahead, come back with that same energy.’ That was my second interview. That was my first encounter.
“And then when I did have my first formal interview with him. We just sat down and chopped it up, dude. We didn’t even talk about ball. Just chopped it up. Learned about my background. (He’s) talking about his background. Like you can sit down and have a two-hour conversation with Coach T. And that’s what I really like about him. You can sit down, don’t got to talk ball, just talk about life with him.”
Derrick Harmon talks meeting @CoachTomlin for the first time. pic.twitter.com/HxXia3Ow2N
— Not Just Football (@NotJustFootball) May 22, 2025
The Steelers used their first-round pick (No. 21 overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft on Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon, but that isn’t how he thought things were going to play out on night one.
Harmon recently to Heyward that he strongly believed the Steelers were going to pass on him for a much bigger position of need.
“No, I thought y’all were going to come quarterback first. I did. I kept seeing it,” Harmon said. “So once I seen [I was picked], I was surprised. But I was happy because I came on my 30 visit and coach [Mike] T. and Omar [Khan], they was just nothing but love and showing nothing but love to me, and telling me, ‘If you there, we going to get you.’ But you never know how the draft will go because the draft can go either way.”
Pittsburgh did have some intriguing quarterback options on the board at No. 21 in Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart (No. 25 to New York Giants), Louisville’s Tyler Shough (No. 40 to New Orleans Saints and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe (No. 92 to Seattle Seahawks).
However, the Steelers needed to address their aging defensive line as well. That’s exactly why Heyward never had any doubt Harmon would end up in the black and gold.
“Oh, I knew,” Heyward said. “They were talking to me. They were like, ‘They like this one,’ and so, it was if you were going to be available to us. And I knew we weren’t taking a quarterback.”
Pittsburgh eventually took a quarterback with its sixth-round pick (No. 185) in Ohio State’s Will Howard, but snagging Harmon was always the ideal scenario.
In 2024, the 6-foot-4 1/2, 313-pound defensive tackle recorded 45 tackles, five sacks and a pair of forced...
