Approaching the 2025 NFL Draft, we’ll be scouting as many of the top prospects that the Pittsburgh Steelers could have their eye on anywhere from Rounds 1 through 7. We’ll break down the prospects themselves, strengths and weaknesses, projected draft capital and their fit with the Steelers.

TJ Sanders is a player who I think is getting lost a bit in this historic defensive tackle class. South Carolina had one of the better defensive lines in college football in 2024, and at its heart was Sanders.

In high school, Sanders was a 3-star recruit out of Marion, South Carolina, where he played defensive end and tight end for Marion High School. After red-shirting his freshman year at South Carolina, he became a rotational player in 2022 and a key starter over his final two years of school. In 39 career games, he totaled 109 combined tackles, 9.5 sacks, 18 tackles for loss and 6 pass deflections.

Position: Defensive tackle

Class: Senior

Size: 6’4, 297 pounds (up to 305 pounds at pro day) , 33 1/8” arms, 10 1/4” hands

Age: Turns 22 on July 30

Projected draft round: Fringe 1st round, Top-50 player

Pro Comparison: Shades of Gerald McCoy/Larry Ogunjobi

Combine Results & RAS Score

Stats via Sports Reference

When you throw on Sanders' tape, he flashes plus as a disruptive pass rusher. He’s got strong, active hands that pack a powerful punch, and his hand usage allows him to execute effective counters. He’s shown the ability to rip and swim past blockers, but his bread and butter is currently his swipe move. On plays where Sanders doesn’t get home to the quarterback, he’s flashed other ways to make the passer uncomfortable. He can convert speed to power to collapse a pocket or slip and knife his way through gaps to get the quarterback off his platform. Sanders has a high motor, and you rarely see him taken out of the play.

He’s perhaps even better against the run. The same penetration skills he shows against the pass apply when the defense asks him to disrupt the run early. But Sanders also frequently shines in a two-gap role against the run, where he is able to stack a blocker and maintain gap control before shedding a blocker at the right moment to make a play.

Strengths

Quick and violent hands
Experience lining up in A-gap and over tackles
Rarely gets moved off his spot defending the run

Weaknesses

Limited knee bend
Hands are sometimes quicker than his feet
Needs more consistency with pad level and can play high at times

Lance Zierlein of NFL.com

Sanders is a powerful road block with heavy hands and a strong core. He rarely touches the ground. Despite a lack of knee bend, he usually gives better than he gets and blockers have a hard time keeping him sealed. He punches and locks out quickly with a twitchy shed to tackle a gap over. His rush features average first-step quickness, but sudden hand swipes and play-through power in his lower half open pathways to the pocket. Sanders’ blend of power and pressure should put him on the board for both odd- and even-front defenses as a potential three-down solution.

Kyle Crabbs for The 33rd Team

As is, he’s an absolute savage rushing the passer who should bolster an NFL team’s sub-package rush group from the jump. Sanders has played more than 150 snaps apiece in the A-gap and head-up over tackles, showing the ability to win from all kinds of angles thanks to his first step, lateral quickness, active hands, and ability to turn tight corners.

This is a player who has shown a variety of ways to get after the quarterback. He’s got a nifty inside scissors and swipe counter to cross face against the center when protection pushes his way, he’s capable of coiling and exploding through gaps with effective quickness, and he can, on occasion, convert speed to power and collapse a center or guard back and compress the pocket. He is slippery through contact thanks to some looseness in his shoulders and does well on twists and stunts to probe and feel creases to pop through and create discomfort for the quarterback.

Keith Sanchez of The Draft Network

Sanders can win in multiple ways on run downs. When working to sustain the line of scrimmage and play gap control, Sanders can shoot his hands to lock out offensive linemen by utilizing his upper-body strength. Using this technique, his length plays a part in how he can quickly get hands on offensive linemen and create the necessary distance by extending his arms to shed them and make a play on the ball-carrier. The other way in which Sanders can win is by using his first-step quickness and athleticism to get upfield and be disruptive. Sanders can beat offensive linemen at the snap, quickly get into the gap, and get penetration. Because of his range and change of direction, Sanders can get into the backfield and run down ball-carriers to create negative plays for offenses in the run game.

T.J. Sanders’ fit with the Steelers

Sanders is a scheme-versatile lineman who has played 150+ college snaps both lining up in the A-gap (the space between center and guard) and lining directly across from the offensive tackle. There was some concern about his weight after he weighed in at 284 pounds at the Senior Bowl, but he has gone up in weight when measured at the Combine (297 pounds) and again at his pro day (305 pounds).

Like most rookies, he has elements of his game that need refining, but he flashes enough disruption on his tape to feel confident that he will develop further at the next level. The Steelers need pass rush help and better run defense, and Sanders provides both.

Sanders currently projects to me as a Top-50 player. He might be a little rich at Pick 21, but would be an ideal target if the Steelers looked to trade back in the first to collect some more picks, or somehow reacquire a second-round pick through a different trade.

TL;DR: Sanders projects as a player who can provide rotational pass rush depth as a rookie, and the potential to develop into a plus starter. He would thrive best in a 3-tech role, but can move all along the line as the Steelers need.

What are your thoughts on South Carolina DT T.J. Sanders? And which draft prospects would you like to see profiled next? Let us know in the comments below!