One of the big storylines of the offseason was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ need for a starting wide receiver opposite George Pickens. They added several players to their wide receiver room in free agency and Roman Wilson via the 2024 NFL Draft, but none of them are proven commodities as a starting receiver on the outside.
Steelers general manager Omar Khan was asked about the possibility of adding to the position Thursday on the first day of training camp.
“There’s nothing going on right now,” Khan said in a video of his press conference posted on the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “I’ll tell you this, when you got 32 GMs, conversations always happen, but there’s nothing going on right now.”
He was pressed further on the topic about evaluating what they have on the roster and having plenty of time before the start of the season to possibly make a deal.
“We’re always going to have conversations with people and if there’s an opportunity to evaluate a situation or a player that’s out there, that’s what we will do,” Khan said. “If it makes sense, we will pursue it. If not, then we won’t.”
Earlier today, one of the receivers who has been a speculative trade target for the Steelers, Denver Broncos WR Courtland Sutton, reportedly signed a contract restructure to give him higher pay and will likely remain in Denver.
There is still well over a month until the first week of the regular season and plenty of time for developments to happen on this front. The Steelers created some cap space ahead of the draft in the form of an Alex Highsmith contract restructure. There have been various reports that the Steelers attempted to make a deal during the draft, possibly for one of the San Francisco 49ers receivers, but obviously nothing came of that.
“We had an opportunity to create and be in this position,” Khan said of the created cap space. “Historically, since I’ve been in this job, we’ve never gone into the season with a lot of cap room. We’ve usually used it, so it’s there for a reason. If there’s an opportunity to utilize it…If there’s a trade opportunity out there, we have some flexibility.”
The Steelers have some players who could possibly receive extensions prior to the start of the season. Khan made sure to highlight that as part of the surplus cap space conversation. TE Pat Freiermuth leads that list, and someone like RB Najee Harris could also be on the table after having his fifth-year option declined.
Khan was specifically asked about the Brandon Aiyuk situation since he requested a trade. He said he has not had any conversations about that while also saying he doesn’t get into the specifics on individual players.
Per Dave Bryan’s latest salary cap update, the Steelers have $16,680,499 in salary cap space right now, but he projected just $2,183,299 of that space to be usable after various estimated costs before and during the season. As always, there are ways to create more space if necessary.
