Remember that time the Pittsburgh Steelers made a run at trading for a young, pedigreed starting cornerback just before the trade deadline? Apparently, neither does anybody in the building. In spite of a national report indicating that they were deep in the running for Chicago Bears CB Jaylon Johnson, it doesn’t seem anybody else since then has been able to corroborate that.
It was a subject that came up multiple times in Gerry Dulac’s latest chat for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as should be no surprise. When you have a report out there suggesting that the Steelers were in the running to make a significant move, it’s going to attract attention.
Yet when asked about how close they were to getting a deal done and what held it up, Dulac said, multiple times, “I’m not aware that it was even a possibility”.
Johnson, a 2020 second-round draft pick by the Bears, has 45 career starts. He picked off two passes in a game just a couple weeks ago, though he only has three for his career. He did return one of them for a touchdown.
In the final year of his contract, Johnson requested permission to seek a trade at the 11th hour. The permission was granted, but there wasn’t much time to make anything happen. The cornerback himself seemed somewhat surprised to still be a Bear, though previously he acknowledged that there were contract talks happening.
The notion of the Steelers trading for Johnson never smelled quite right. They don’t tend to be in the market for players in the final year of their contract in the middle of the season—when they do not negotiate contracts, unlike most other teams. You’re almost guaranteeing that he will hit free agency or that you would have to franchise tag him.
Johnson has been a solid player on a generally upward trajectory. One can reasonably assume that his best football remains in front of him. And he will surely receive a contract that reflects that when he hits free agency, if he doesn’t get an extension done with the Bears before then.
The Steelers wouldn’t be in that market, starting with the fact that it doesn’t fit within their traditional contract hierarchy. They also seem to have a vision at the cornerback position they are pursuing with young players like Joey Porter Jr., now a starter, as well as Cory Trice Jr. and Darius Rush, a trio of rookies they hope will be contributors in the future.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if the Steelers are never in the market for Johnson, who, by the way, wasn’t even traded at all, in case that wasn’t obvious. It never made sense financially or philosophically, and according to the Bears, they were looking for draft capital far steeper than Pittsburgh would have ever risked for possibly a half-season rental.
