With a pair of trades to acquire DK Metcalf and send George Pickens away, the Pittsburgh Steelers are right back at square one in terms of their WR situation. As with last year, we can probably expect a significant amount of offseason rumors linking the Steelers to various WR trade possibilities around the league. An early candidate appears to be New Orleans Saints WR Chris Olave.
According to one Saints beat writer, it doesn’t sound like there are great odds of New Orleans trading him.
“You see a team with a good player, you assume they stink, so you start shopping their list. Bad teams, rebuilding teams, are usually willing to trade assets. So, maybe the Saints end up there,” Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football wrote. “But… I also don’t think it would make a lot of sense for New Orleans to trade Chris Olave unless it is already clear that he’ll be leaving. But even then, unless the return is crazy, why would you trade him right now?”
The circumstances in New Orleans are obvious. Derek Carr’s shoulder injury forced him to retire unexpectedly and they are left scrambling to salvage a roster that already went 5-12 last year.
On the other hand, they just hired Kellen Moore as an exciting first-time head coach and drafted QB Tyler Shough in the second round – just the third quarterback off the board. With Shough likely to play early and often, Olave is a key piece to his early success. If they really like Shough and want him to develop, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to gut all pieces around him.
“I imagine the Saints are willing to trade anyone on their roster for the right price … and the price for Olave is probably insanely high,” Underhill wrote. “Is a team that has been unaggressive this offseason the one that’s really going to make a call and blow the doors off for the wide receiver? Hard to see it.”
The Steelers already made two significant trades at the WR position this offseason. Are they going to make it three? Just last offseason they reportedly had an offer on the table to the San Francisco 49ers for Brandon Aiyuk. By all accounts their trade offer was strong, but it wasn’t something the 49ers couldn’t refuse.
Omar Khan has mentioned multiple times now how they intentionally stacked 2026 draft picks. He didn’t mention drafting a quarterback next year, but that is a fair assumption to make. Even Art Rooney II said the Steelers would look for a quarterback in this year’s draft or the next. Given that they waited until the sixth round to take Will Howard, it’s safe to assume they are eyeing next year’s crop of quarterbacks already.
The Saints picked up Olave’s fifth-year option in April, keeping him under team control through the 2026 season. In a theoretical trade, the Steelers would get at least two years with Olave before he hits free agency. Our Dave Bryan examined the plausibility of an Olave trade on the site today from a salary cap and draft capital perspective. Check that out for an in-depth look.
In summary, the Steelers would have to be willing to part with valuable draft capital that might make it harder to acquire a first-round quarterback they like next year. Everything else about their offseason points to that not being part of the overall strategy.
