Behind the Steel Curtain
The Steelers appear to be back in the market for a pass catcher after trading away their mercurial receiver.
After months of speculation, the Steelers finally did what I’ve been prepping you for all offseason — they traded George Pickens. Whatever your thoughts on Pickens, the clues pointing towards his eventual departure have been there over the past year. Like any place of employment, an NFL team will have times when a talented player is not meshing with the workplace culture. As Pickens' time in Pittsburgh wore on, it became clear that Pickens was both talented and a personality the Steelers were increasingly finding untenable for the team ethos they hoped to achieve.
This trade should invite some retroactive criticism of the Steelers' draft, even if I think the trade is ultimately the right call. Pittsburgh was unable to convince a team to fork over a Day 2 pick in the 2025 draft for Pickens, but they were clearly still open to trading him. In Read & Reacts review of the draft, Ryland Bickley and I caught some flak for mentioning our concerns that the team didn’t target a receiver in the draft — especially in the fourth round when one of the draft’s most Arthur Smith-coded prospects, Stanford receiver Elic Ayomanor, was still available — but this move only hammers home our concerns about receiver depth.
So, where do the Steelers turn now? They may be willing to gut it out with Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson, Robert Woods, Scotty Miller, and Ben Skowronek behind DK Metcalf. That would signal a team selling out to run the ball and would likely feature a heavy dosage of 12 and 13-personnel packages. It would also become one of the least inspiring groups in the league heading into the new season.
Let’s take a look at some realistic options, starting with the open market.
Looking at the names of available free agents won’t inspire much optimism from Steelers fans. Keenan Allen (33) and Amari Cooper (31 in June) have the most name recognition, but both are well past their primes. Allen was never known for his run-blocking prowess, and while Cooper is at least respectable as a blocker, he’s been nagged by injury in recent seasons and had the fewest receiving yards (547) of his career in 2024.
How the Steelers plan to deploy their WR2 could say a lot about who they pursue. If the Steelers plan to use several single-receiver sets, they might not be as worried about bringing in a dynamic pass catcher as much as they are about finding willing participants in the run game. With that in mind, two veterans to keep an eye on are Chris Conley and Nelson Agholor.
Conley received PFF’s second-highest grade for run blocking among receivers while playing in San Francisco’s zone-heavy scheme. Agholor checks a lot of those same boxes, having previously played in run-heavy offenses like Philadelphia and Baltimore. Neither receiver has demanded much of a target...
