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Grading Steelers' First Round Pick Derrick Harmon: Pittsburgh hits on the player but misses on the position at 21st overall

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Rob Gregson | Last updated Apr 25, 2025 5:00 AM ET

The Pittsburgh Steelers hope and think that Derrick Harmon will be on their team for a long time.

In a vacuum, the player is an A+. He addresses a position that will be barren as soon as Cam Heyward retires, and he does so as an excellent player and human.

But when you consider the Steelers passed on two players that could very well be franchise quarterbacks, the pick loses a little luster....

Steelers Round 1 Grade: B

I want to reiterate my lede. Derrick Harmon is a steal and an A+ pick at 21. He fills the noste tackle need now, and with some development under the tutelage of Cam Heyward, he can eventually take over for him.

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Harmon has everything you want from a modern defensive tackle. Sure, he shows the ability to play up and down the defensive line, but his combination of size and strength lends his services best utilized near the center. He's stiffer than you would like, and he may not play in wider defensive line alignments on an every-down basis.

Instead, you plug him squarely over the ball and dare teams to try and move him in the run game. It takes an army. And it won't be easy for any center-guard combo to wall him off. Should he develop his pass rush plan a bit and drop some weight to become more agile, then he could be utilized similarly to his time in college as a versatile lineman. For now, though, he's a day one starter at the defensive tackle position with immediate impact in the run game.

But last I checked, the Steelers' only quarterbacks are Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson. I don't care if Harmon is better than any other player in he draft and is the biggest steal in recent history...Pittsburgh will not win anything of significance until they solve their QB woes.

And maybe Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart would have never done that. And yes, I know the Kenny Pickett scars still haven't fully healed. Bit shooters shoot. Instead, the Steelers sat by, and if one those quarterbacks goes on to be successful, the front office will never hear the end of it.