If the Pittsburgh Steelers do trade down in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, GM Omar Khan hinted at the most likely scenario. With no second-round pick after the DK Metcalf trade, they would have more incentive than usual to do so. And they already expressed pretty clearly that a trade up was very unlikely.
If the Steelers end up trading down, you can bet it’s because the defensive linemen fall. Khan suggested as much, speaking to reporters yesterday, via the team’s website. Asked about targeting defensive linemen and if that allows them more of an opportunity to trade down, he said, “Absolutely, 100 percent. I mean, it just gives you options”.
Granted, that’s a fairly unassuming answer, and even on the generic side. But if you start connecting the dots and extrapolating odds, it would make a lot of sense for the Steelers to trade down if the run on defensive linemen doesn’t hit before them.
What if they are on the clock at 21 and Derrick Harmon, Kenneth Grant, and Walter Nolen are there? Are you really telling me the Steelers wouldn’t very seriously consider trading back a few spots in that scenario? This isn’t 2023 when they didn’t want to trade away from Joey Porter Jr. at the top of the second. They were either getting Porter or missing out on the top cornerback prospects.
In this scenario, the Steelers could trade down and still likely land one of their top defensive linemen. They may even wind up with their preferred lineman, depending on how the board breaks. Not every team needs a defensive lineman, and not every lineman fits the same scheme.
Whether the Steelers trade down or not, or why, the scenarios are something that they look at. “We talk all the time”, Khan said, referring to general managers around the league. “We kind of get an idea. I’m sure we’re not all being 100 percent truthful to each other on what we’re planning to do and who we’re going after, but those conversations have happened”.
“You have a feel for some teams that maybe want to move up, move back”, he added. “A lot of this doesn’t happen until the draft has started and you know what’s happening”. Rather than trading down, the Steelers have traded up in the first round twice in recent years. At least in 2019, they already had those discussions ahead of time.
I think it’s worth noting that we’ve heard conflicting views from executives around the league. And I also think that might be a good sign. Some think there will be a lot of activity, some think there won’t be any. That suggests to me that there are more teams with different intentions than people realize. In other words, some teams like the Steelers may prefer to trade down, others wanting to trade up.
A team looking to move back into the first round to draft a quarterback would make a logical candidate for the Steelers to trade down with, for example. Obviously, that depends on how far back they would have to move. But they could trade down and then back up, as other teams do. The fact that no team has traded a first-round pick remains shocking and is very likely to change.
