When it comes to Shedeur Sanders, the NFL hasn’t seen a drop this bad since … well, Mark Andrews in Buffalo wasn’t all that long ago, I guess.

ButSanders’ tumble down the draft board has been the biggest story over the first two days of this year’s NFL selection process.

The Pittsburgh Steelers helped tocontribute to it Friday night. Again.

The Steelers not only passed on the Colorado quarterback at pick No. 21 Thursday when they only had two such players on the roster, butthey decided to do so again at pick No. 83 in the third round.

That’s when the franchise took Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson with Sanders still available.

“Perfect fit. Regardless of whatever run scheme he is running — he ran multiple in Iowa — (he is) really impressive as a volume runner as the game went on,” Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said after the selection. “One of the more impressive stats you’ll see (is) what he averaged in the fourth quarter. I believe it was over five yards per carry. It might have been closer to six. We think he’s a great culture fit.”

Before we get into the analysis of this pick, play along with me at home for a moment. What if Sanders is actually good? What if he proves to have been worthy of a first-round pick?

Think about it. The Cleveland Browns passed on Sanders five times with only Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco as healthy QBs on their roster and didn’t use any of those picks on a quarterback until Dillon Gabriel at Pick No. 94.

Meanwhile, Cleveland bypassed Ben Roethlisberger just once in 2004 and he haunted that franchise for 18 years. If Sanders ends up being a Pro Bowler, what’s he capable of doing to those guys?

Granted, that’s probably taking things a bit too far. Sanders isn’t worthy of a Big Ben comparison. In fact, the NFL comps I heard leading up to draft day were more like Geno Smith, Andy Dalton and Teddy Bridgewater.

Maybe that’s why he has lasted until Day 3 instead of perhaps going in the top 3 overall as many people thought would be the case as recently as two weeks ago.

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Yet, the Steelers — with only two QBs of their own on their roster — accelerated Sanders’ spill into Saturday when they decided to take Johnson as the 19th pick in Round 3.

“Coach (Tomlin) and Omar (Khan), and Mr. Rooney, have spoken about the quarterbacks,” Smith said. “Talking about Kaleb, that’s kind of where my focus has been. Kaleb Johnson is a Pittsburgh Steeler. We’re really excited about him and what he can bring to the offense and the team.”

In Johnson, the Steelers are getting a 6-foot-1, 224-pound back who rushed for a career-high 1,537 yards and 21 touchdowns last year.

During our “Breakfast with Benz” pre-draft podcast series, former pro and college scout Matt Williamson of Steelers Nation Radio said he also thought Johnson would be a good fit for the Steelers offense, but only gave him “a 25% chance” of being on the board at No. 83.

“He is an outside-zone specialist. He is big, and he can get to the corner,” Williamson said. “It’s just that his highlight film doesn’t blow you away. Really efficient, wears guys down. Only ran a 4.57 (40-yard-dash), which I’m fine with. He’s not going to bust off a bunch of long plays. It gets real old tackling him by the end of the day, though.”

It’s that zone running ability that might actually make Johnson a “perfect fit” here, and a good complement to Jaylen Warren with Kenneth Gainwell as a solid third-down option as well.

“Always be patient and let the block flow. If they overrun it, your offensive line cuts back. If they underrun it, just keep flat on your track,” Johnson explained.“I’ve just got a good feel of where to put that ball where it needs to be put.”

Unfortunately for Sanders, his draft party was as much of a bust as the Nakatomi Plaza Christmas bash in “Die Hard.”

The funny thing is, at this point, Sanders may actually be deemed as having good value.

For now, though, the Steelers felt like they were getting more of that value with a running back in an extremely deep draft at that position instead of a quarterback in a very thin draft for talent under center.

Much as they did with Derrick Harmon in Round 1, the Steelers decided to go with pragmatism instead of paparazzi by taking Johnson instead of Sanders.

That was the right thing to do. Both times.

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Check back with me in Round 4. Maybe that’ll be Shedeur’s “prime time.”

LISTEN: Tim Benz and Matt Williamson discuss Kaleb Johnson and the other running backs in the 2025 NFL Draft.