The Pittsburgh Steelers are seeing their passing offense struggle with WR George Pickens sidelined due to a hamstring injury, and while the wide receiver room beyond him was a question mark all year, the group is once again being brought up as a potential failure by general manager Omar Khan. On The Pomp & Joe Show on 93.7 The Fan, Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show was asked whether it’s a failure by Khan to not upgrade the receiver room beyond Pickens.
“No,” Kaboly said. “Not much he can do. If [Brandon] Aiyuk wanted to come here, you can do it.”
The Steelers were after Aiyuk this offseason, but he agreed to a contract extension with the 49ers before he could get dealt to Pittsburgh. The Steelers added Van Jefferson and Scotty Miller this offseason while also signing Ben Skowronek early in the season, but they didn’t grab a legitimate No. 2 receiver. Of course, one of the receivers they were supposed to meet with this offseason was Mike Williams, who is now on the team after being acquired from the New York Jets via trade.
Williams hasn’t been the answer as a pure No. 2 that Pittsburgh may have thought he could be this offseason, and there weren’t a lot of names on the market that would’ve made sense. Khan tried to acquire Aiyuk, and he would’ve been a huge upgrade for the Steelers and someone who could’ve been another real weapon across from Pickens.
While the players the Steelers acquired haven’t nececessarily been guys you can truly count on each week, all of them have done more or less what’s expected of them. Jefferson has been an outstanding blocker who makes plays when called upon in the passing game. Miller has shown up when the ball has come his way and provided some splash, while Skowronek has also made plays through the air while being a talented gunner on punt coverage.
Khan could be faulted for not going after a bigger fish as an Aiyuk backup plan, but the Aiyuk discussions came close enough to the regular season that there wasn’t really any other good options after he signed an extension with the 49ers. It was a valiant effort to acquire Aiyuk, one that was thwarted by Aiyuk showing up to work early one day and deciding to get a deal done with San Francisco. It’s hard to fault Khan too much for not adding this offseason, especially given that the Steelers are 10-4 right now. Receiver will be a need this upcoming offseason, but the receiver room by and large has been fine and will be a lot better when Pickens returns from his hamstring injury.
