The Pittsburgh Steelers went into this year’s NFL draft all ready to piece two and two together and churn out some decent names. What actually happened was Mike Tomlin and company came out guns blazing with steal after steal in the draft class. They had the 21st pick in the first round, and they might have been tempted to draft a quarterback in that, considering the flirtation with Aaron Rodgers is still going on. But what did they do? Well, the case for their 2025 draft class has Pat McAfee riding the Mike Tomlin bandwagon quite aggressively.

Steelers in their first-round, 21st pick, decided not to draft a quarterback, but to rope in a player who will form a steel wall in the D line. The picking of Derrick Harmon might have been perplexing for the NFL fans, but college football fans know very well the beast that Derrick Harmon is. The defensive tackle playing for the Oregon Ducks helped Dan Lanning achieve an undefeated regular season and led the FBS in defensive tackles. Harmon produced 45-inch perfect tackles with Oregon, along with 5 sacks in just his first season at Oregon. That’s something, right? But that’s not where Mike Tomlin stopped.

In came Kaleb Johnson, the round 3, 83rd overall pick as a prospective elite running back in college football. But why the hype? Well, Johnson was an All-American last year and rushed for 1,537 yards for Iowa. Moreover, his fit in Mike Tomlin’s zone-based system will be quite apt, given Iowa also ran a similar setup. But after these two draft picks came Jack Sawyer and Will Howard, with a national championship in their resume and elite quality in their pockets. This is something that couldn’t stop Pat McAfee from praising Mike Tomlin.

McAfee posted the whole conversation on his Instagram account ‘patmcafeeshow’ and first questioned sarcastically, “The Steelers had a big-time draft, didn’t draft a quarterback, though. What’s going on over there?” Well, after the rhetorical question, the announcer then exclaimed. “Oh, they got the guy, they got the one. They got a national champion in the sixth round of the NFL draft. Will Howard becomes Pittsburgh. Steeler alongside Jack Sawyer, a couple of national champions. Go to UPMC.”

Both Will Howard and Jack Sawyer are incredible in their own right, having already led Ohio State to lift the national championship trophy together. The edge rusher comes with a huge upside and a ceiling potential, but is likely to serve as OLB4 in the room. Will Howard, on the other hand, is a complete steal for the Steelers as they drafted him in the 6th round with pick 185.

The QB is a short-term stop-gap solution in the depth room, and even a long-term solution with time. Also, it’s not that the QB can’t be the one. Just last year, he produced 4,000+ passing yards at an astonishing 73.1% efficiency. That surely says a lot about his talent. Of course, there are some issues with him, like his deep ball talent and physicality, but that can be rectified with time.

Warren Sapp comes out against Pat McAfee?

The verdict by Pat McAfee about Will Howard and Jack Sawyer may look a bit of a stretch, but that’s how McAfee’s opinions are. Crisp, controversial, and to the point, that is not to say they usually go wrong. In a recent verdict, McAfee gave a verdict about Will Howard building up to the NFL Combine in March. “They look into a hotel parking lot. It was a little chilly in Indianapolis, and there’s one guy taking dropbacks and throwing a football over a parking thing to the other side, and there’s somebody catching it.”

But, this isn’t where the story ended, as Warren Sapp came out with a scathing statement against McAfee and may have also accused McAfee of conjuring stories up out of thin air. The Buffs analyst may not be too happy about McAfee hyping up players without any solid evidence. “Then you hear these wild stories about the quarterback from Ohio State out at the parking lot throwing the ball – oh, stop it! Just stop it, just stop the lie… ain’t nobody out 11 o’clock throwing no ball in Indianapolis“.

Maybe Sapp might have had enough of McAfee’s antics and wanted him to face a reality test, who knows? But Howard didn’t quite perform as expected in the Combine. That ultimately might have even plunged his stock downwards. But, now, the QB is in Mike Tomlin’s setup, and there won’t be anything left that the head coach won’t do to make his ‘steal’ deal successful.