Everybody seems to agree that the biggest hole on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster is a true No. 2 wide receiver. That belief is so widespread that Missi Matthews even asked offensive coordinator Arthur Smith about it, which he deftly sidestepped. Smith’s offenses traditionally haven’t run through pairs of highly productive wide receivers, so it was a legitimate question to ask. Still, the way that he navigated around answering it caught my attention—not necessarily positively or negatively, but certainly noticeably.
“Do you need a quote-unquote “wide receiver number two” for your offense, a designated guy?”, Matthews asked Smith. He began to go down different avenues of answering before generalizing to a broader question about roster depth.
“Things change year to year. You see it in this league, guys that may be fifth-round picks end up being the Rookie of the Year”, Smith said. “Guys get another opportunity, they step up. It’s constantly changing. And then, unfortunately, guys that injured. You have to have depth”.
But where in this response is an answer to the question of whether he needs a legitimate second-option receiver? Is he simply saying, sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t, and we’re going to find out? Of course, things change year to year, and of course sometimes people exceed or fall short of expectations. And, of course, injuries factor into the equation. But do you need a strong second receiver across from George Pickens or not, Arthur Smith?
“You’re working all those contingency plans up and down the offense. [It’s] no different than the offensive line”, Smith said, again shifting the conversation to the general. “We get good competition there. On game day, you usually have eight. You gotta have guys that have some position flexibility. There’s all these contingency plans. As we’re building this offseason, we’re working as well”.
The Steelers had a legitimate second wide receiver earlier this offseason in Diontae Johnson. They traded him to the Carolina Panthers, however, in order to acquire a legitimate second cornerback. They had already hired Arthur Smith by then, so surely he had some input on the matter, which only fuels questions.
Would the Steelers have traded him if Smith felt strongly that he could use him? Since then, they have only signed journeyman veterans to minimum-salary contract. Their biggest move was using a third-round pick to draft Roman Wilson.
And yet they reportedly very nearly completed a trade for either Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel during the draft. Assuming that is true, what does that say about whether Smith feels he needs a strong second receiver? Just because he hasn’t always had one doesn’t mean he doesn’t want one.
Then you have the tight ends talking about how crucial they are and how the offense runs through them. Historically, Smith uses his tight ends a lot more than most teams do. But even if you run a lot of 12 personnel, you still have two wide receivers on the field. Is Wilson that second receiver? Is Van Jefferson, or Quez Watkins? Scotty Miller, or Calvin Austin III? Denzel Mims, perhaps, or maybe Marquez Callaway? Or maybe they simply don’t have one. Maybe they don’t need one.
