The biggest issue on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster on paper is their wide receiver room. The team traded Diontae Johnson this offseason and didn’t add another legitimate No. 2 receiver. Instead, the Steelers opted for more project-type players like Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins and Scotty Miller, although the team did draft Michigan WR Roman Wilson in the third round and still has Calvin Austin III on the roster. Appearing on The Rich Eisen Show recently, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes the Steelers’ wide receiver room has “nice potential” heading into 2024.
“We’ll see how Arthur Smith utilizes those guys, I’m not gonna tell you it’s the greatest wide receiver room in team history, but I think it has some nice potential with the addition of Roman Wilson and they’ll keep their fingers crossed that Calvin Austin, they can utilize his speed the way they envisioned when they drafted him a couple years ago,” Dulac said.
There doesn’t appear to be a viable option out on the trade market right now, with a lot of the bigger names likely staying with their current teams. That leaves the Steelers in a bind if they want to upgrade their room, but given that they haven’t done so yet, they might be content with what they have in place. Dulac compared Wilson’s physicality and hands to Hines Ward, which has been a common comparison for Wilson, and landing with Pittsburgh obviously amplifies it.
Austin is an interesting case. A fourth-round pick in 2022, he missed his rookie season with an injury and didn’t offer much outside of a 72-yard touchdown in Week 3 against the Las Vegas Raiders that he said thought would be his coming out party. Austin struggles with catching in traffic, but his speed is legitimate, and Arthur Smith could try and get creative in using him to create opportunities.
The other point is that Smith used three-receiver sets the lowest in the league last season with the Falcons, so he can mix and match the receivers the Steelers have to throw different looks at the defense and also look to get tight ends involved more. So it might not be as important for the Steelers to go get that legitimate No. 2-caliber receiver behind George Pickens, especially in an offense that’s going to try and establish the run game first and foremost.
While it’s football in shorts and hard to draw any meaningful takeaways, the wide receiver group was reportedly impressive in OTAs, and while I’m a little nervous about how things will go if they don’t make another addition, this group could wind up surprising.
