The Pittsburgh Steelers have reportedly been poking around the wide receiver market for a couple weeks now leading up to next week’s trade deadline. But I wonder if their thinking has since changed after back-to-back losses in which the offense performed fine but the defense floundered.
Dan Graziano thinks their focus should be on adding pieces to the defense, not the offense, at the deadline.
“I don’t think enough people realize how bad their defense has gotten,” Graziano said Tuesday via ESPN’s SportsCenter. “Every time you put on a Steelers game, the talk that you hear is like, ‘Oh, well of course the Steelers are known for great defense.’ I’m sitting here thinking this is not 1976. This is a group that got very old, very fast. And this isn’t like the 49ers where half of ’em are hurt. This is their group basically. One or two guys have missed some time, but this is what they have.
“People talk about the Steelers getting a wide receiver at the deadline. I think they should trade for some defense.”
Perhaps the Steelers’ reported plans to sign WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling is a clear signal of a pivot in strategy. If they were thinking they needed to make a splashy trade at receiver prior to their Sunday night loss to the Green Bay Packers, maybe they decided to add light depth and shift their attention to defense.
Calvin Austin III has been solid this season, and Roman Wilson finally had a game resembling a breakout performance. Valdes-Scantling ensures one more depth piece that Aaron Rodgers is familiar with to round out the receiver room.
The question is, where do the Steelers need to add on defense? Both DT Daniel Ekuale and S DeShon Elliott are likely out for the season, so those positions make the most sense. But their supposedly loaded cornerback room feels inadequate at the moment, too.
Pittsburgh is going nowhere with the league’s 30th ranked total defense. I’m not sure it’s fixable, even with a significant trade. But doing nothing would be giving up on this season and likely the Rodgers experiment. Who would want to return to this version of the team?
