Will Howard Links Shedeur Sanders Effect On Qbs to Steelers Draft Slide
Will Howard said the shedeur sanders effect on qbs showed up fast in April 2025, when late-round quarterbacks felt teams pull back while Shedeur Sanders kept sliding. The former Ohio State quarterback said that shift reached his own draft path before he landed with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Will Howard and the Steelers
Howard said he thought there was a chance he was going to go on Friday. He added, "I was hearing that." Those expectations fit the way his draft week was moving, even after he had just come off a January 2025 national championship run with Ohio State.
Instead, he slid down draft boards in April 2025 and ended up with Pittsburgh. Howard said he remembered talking with some guys from the Steelers, and that the draft mood around quarterbacks changed as Sanders kept falling.
Shedeur Sanders Falls to Cleveland
Sanders dropped from the first or second round to the fifth round before landing with the Cleveland Browns. He shared a quarterback room with Dillon Gabriel there, while Howard joined a Steelers quarterback room that also included Aaron Rodgers.
Howard said teams were apprehensive about touching late-round prospects like himself, Quinn Ewers, Riley Leonard, and Kyle McCord. He said, "I remember talking with some guys from the Steelers, and it was really that whole Shedeur situation that his sliding really hurt a lot of the other quarterbacks in our class," drawing a straight line from Sanders' fall to the way other passers were valued.
Late-Round Quarterbacks Shift
The damage, in Howard's telling, was not limited to one slot on the board. He said Sanders' slide changed how teams treated the rest of the class, and his own path shows the ripple effect: a quarterback who expected Friday interest instead waited through the draft before Pittsburgh brought him in.
Howard's 2024 Ohio State season helps explain why the board move stood out. He played 16 games in Scarlet and Gray, finished with a 58% on-target percentage over the middle and threw 10 interceptions, yet still entered April with a chance to hear his name sooner than the later rounds. Instead, Sanders' tumble to the fifth round altered the market around quarterbacks like Howard, Ewers, Leonard and McCord, leaving their draft spots tied to how teams reacted to one unexpected slide.
