2025 NFL Draft: ESPN analyst breaks down whether Saints, Steelers are better fit for Shedeur Sanders

Dan Orlovsky likes Shedeur Sanders as a prospect but was really pondering where he’ll end up in the NFL Draft. Will it be the New Orleans Saints or the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Those two teams seem to be the most likely, at least the most talked about, destinations for the former Colorado quarterback. The problem is, the Steelers pick at No. 21 and might need to trade up if there’s a lot of smoke with the Saints at No. 9.

While Orlovsky likes the prospect of Sanders to the Saints, the Steelers make more sense. He can add to a win-now type of roster.

“My thought immediately went to the Steelers, because … if you were the Saints, this injury news or potential shouldn’t really affect the way you think,” Orlovsky said on Get Up. “But God bless it’s got to affect the way the Steelers think, because there’s no possible way that the Steelers could sit there and definitively know what the Saints plans are. 

“And so if the Steelers were like, kind of 50-50, 60-40, on one of these quarterbacks, whether it’s Shedeur or Jaxson Dart, they can’t sit there and go, ‘Well, we can now wait.’ Because let’s live in the world where they liked both of them, maybe didn’t love either, but like both of them, and they were like, well, we’ll take the one that the Saints don’t grab or whatnot. Now you’re sitting there going, you could waste a year, if you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers, if you just sit there at 21 and cross your fingers at Rdogers is a done deal.” 

Shedeur Sanders to Saints or Steelers?

The Aaron Rodgers factor weighs in as well. But, that shouldn’t deter the Steelers 

“And again, I’ve been outspoken, I think it is, but that’s my assumption,” Orlovsky said. “You could waste TJ Watt’s last year under contract. You could waste another cCam Heyward season, you could waste another Minkah Fitzpatrick season, you could waste the first year of DK Metcalf. So if you’re the Steelers, and you’re just playing this waiting game. Now this makes you even more likely and more urgent to be ‘I gotta get ahead of No. 9, I have to, no matter what.’”

Sanders finished his final season leading college football in completion percentage and is the FBS all-time leader in the stat at 71.8% for a career. He had 4,134 yards, 37 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 74% completion percentage in 2024.