How many players other than Diontae Johnson are the Steelers “open to moving” for the right price?
Boy, the offseason never actually slows down, does it? At least not for long. Tony Pauline dropped a potential bomb yesterday reporting that the Steelers are “open to moving” WR Diontae Johnson.
“If they receive fair compensation”, he added. And he prefaced the report by saying that Johnson is not on the trade block. So exactly what are we talking about here? The Steelers are willing to trade Johnson if they get a deal they believe is fair.
But can’t we say the same thing for nearly every player on the roster? Can’t we say that about 99 percent of the players in the National Football League? Almost everybody has a “fair compensation” package for which a team would give up a player.
Of course, not every player is marketable. Johnson is, to some extent, but at what value? What teams are willing to pay and what Pittsburgh is willing to accept may not align. The Steelers don’t budge when they’re not pressed to make a trade. Look to the value they got from desperate teams for Martavis Bryant and Chase Claypool.
The problem is, deadlines spurred on those trades. In the case of the former, the draft influenced action. For the latter, the trade deadline loomed. For Johnson, the Steelers are the ones with the deadline. They have to pay him a $3 million roster bonus in a couple weeks. Teams know that. They don’t want to pay that bonus.
But even Pauline’s report doesn’t make it sound as though the Steelers have any particular interest in trading Johnson. They’re just open to listening to offers. They’ve probably been open to listening to offers for a while now.
Here’s the thing: nobody is really desperate for a borderline WR1 at the start of the new league year. I doubt anybody believes so much in Johnson that they are going to overpay for him in mid-March. They can just sign another wide receiver in free agency or wait until the draft.
I’m not saying the Steelers trading Johnson would shock me, by any means. I just question how likely it is because there’s no pressing urgency at this time to drive up his price. The only realistic possibility is a bidding war, and even that’s not very realistic.
The Steelers’ 2023 season has been put out of its misery, ending as so many have before in recent years: a disappointing, blowout playoff loss. The only change-up lately is when they miss the playoffs altogether. But with the Buffalo Bills stamping them out in the Wildcard Round, they have another long offseason ahead.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Is Kenny Pickett the guy? Will he get another season’s reprieve without a serious challenge? How will the team address the depth chart? Do they re-sign Mason Rudolph, one of few significant unrestricted free agents?
The Steelers are swirling with more questions this offseason than usual, frankly, though the major free agent list is less substantial than usual. It’s just a matter of…what happens next? Where do they go from here? How do they find the way forward?
