The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a precarious situation at wide receiver over the first half of the season. They were always one George Pickens injury away from a disaster, and the rest of the group ran pretty thin as well. The trade for WR Mike Williams helps stabilize the group and insulates them from one injury derailing the offense.
The Steelers relied on elevating practice squad WR Brandon Johnson to help fill out the group multiple times while Scotty Miller has barely been involved at all. It has more or less been a three-person room with Pickens, Van Jefferson, and Calvin Austin III doing most of the work. That is pretty unusual in today’s NFL. Even an injury to Jefferson or Austin would have been quite detrimental to the group.
“I’m excited to bring a guy like Mike [Williams] to the fold. We’ve only had I think four wide receivers up each game,” Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said via his Not Just Football podcast on YouTube. “I think now having a fifth one, I think it just stabilizes the group. He can take the top off of a defense and I think having him, George, Van, Calvin, it is gonna be a group by committee that’s getting the job done. I think he’s a good teammate. You never heard him badmouth anybody. You never heard him throw anybody under the bus. I think he’s only concerned with winning.”
Balance in the passing game has gotten a little better in recent weeks with Russell Wilson as the starting quarterback, but Pickens was accounting for an absurdly high percentage of the wide receiver room’s total receptions and yards. Even right now, he has 548 receiving yards and 35 receptions compared to 31 receptions for 428 yards from all other receivers combined on the roster.
The Steelers would still be in trouble if Pickens got hurt of course, but Williams can fill a similar role to the one Pickens currently does as the contested-catch specialist on Wilson’s moon balls down the field. Hopefully he can also help balance out where the yards are coming from in the receiving game to take a little pressure off Pickens.
