If the Pittsburgh Steelers are concerned about their wide receiver depth after trading George Pickens, they won’t be telling you. Indeed, it’s rather rare for any team, especially a team after the draft, to talk openly about roster holes. But when you trade a starter in May, it’s going to take more than words to convince people you’re serious.
After the Steelers traded George Pickens, GM Omar Khan insisted they “feel good” about their wide receiver room. He rejected comparisons to the previous season, before which they traded a starter and never replaced him. Despite making largely lateral moves since then, he claims they feel they are in a much stronger place. Not everybody is buying it.
“For two years, they said they were comfortable with Mason Rudolph as their quarterback and all they kept doing was bringing in other quarterbacks”, Gerry Dulac pointed out regarding the Steelers’ claims of comfort in their current wide receiver room. “The fact that they say that they’re comfortable, what else are they going to say”?
But perhaps they really do feel that way, at least relative to last year. Perhaps it was George Pickens who made the Steelers feel less comfortable than they let on. Now that they have DK Metcalf at the top of the depth chart, they actually trust their No. 1 WR. Of course, they also have aspirations for Roman Wilson, who effectively spent his rookie season injured. If he can be a significant contributor this year, that would make a considerable difference.
Still, given all the other moves the Steelers have made, or tried to make, one would assume they want to add another target. And Dulac believes they will try to another wide receiver. “I don’t believe that they are going to make some kind of trade for another receiver”, he said, “but I think they’re probably gonna wait a little bit and see what becomes available. I don’t think there’s any hurry for that, at least right now”.
George Pickens is just the latest talented but tumultuous wide receiver the Steelers have traded. Khan chalked that up to coincidence, even if they have found good value for them, generally. The second-round pick they gained in exchange for Chase Claypool certainly raised some eyebrows.
But what does it say that the Steelers got “only” a third-round pick for Pickens? Yes, they also boosted a sixth-round pick in 2027 to a fifth-round pick, but that doesn’t move the needle much. While that says something about Pickens’ off-field concerns, no doubt there is a football factor, as well. At the very least, his four touchdowns per season is hard to stomach for all the trouble he might cause.
That is, of course, why Pickens is now with the Cowboys instead of the Steelers. If they really believed in a future with him, he would still be here. Perhaps they feel a little better about their wide receiver room than they did last year. But even last year, they tried to trade for Brandon Aiyuk, then did trade for Mike Williams.
