Steelers Now
First-round defensive tackle Derrick Harmon thought the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to pass on him in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Pittsburgh 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 revealed he strongly believed that 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 on the latest episode of “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward.” “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 and recovered fumbles at Oregon.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: First-Round Pick Derrick Harmon Thought Steelers Were Going to Pass on Him
