Steelers Now
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Pittsburgh Steelers need a wide receiver. That’s been the case since the team traded Diontae Johnson away last spring, and at this point, they might need two or three.
The Steelers enter the 2025 offseason with just three wide receivers under contract that finished the season on an NFL 53-man roster: George Pickens, Calvin Austin III and Roman Wilson.
Pickens is entering the last year of his rookie contract, and with multiple on- and off-the-field issues over his first three seasons, it’s hard to see them opening up the checkbook for a long-term deal at this point. If Pickens is displeased with that news, he could engineer his own exit from Pittsburgh this offseason.
Wilson played a total of five snaps as a rookie while dealing with hamstring and ankle injuries and an inability to get back into the rotation in the rare times when he was healthy. He remains a total wild card.
Austin is the closest thing the Steelers have to a sure thing, as he seems to have established himself as a solid No. 3/4 receiver, particularly when he can be used in the slot, and also as a punt returner. But even Austin is set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2026 and has a less-than-certain future.
The Steelers could very well need to find three or four receivers between free agency and the trade market between now and the start of the 2025 season, especially if they intend to move on from Pickens.
We’ll get to the draft class later in the offseason, but for now, here’s a primer of the top 18 players likely to be available via free agency, release or trade, when the new league year kicks off on March 12.
Note: Players are listed in descending order of 2024 receiving yards.
2024 stats: 12 games, 73 receptions, 911 yards, 10 touchdowns
The holy grail of this year’s free agent market. The Steelers love him. Mike Tomlin compared him to Shaq. He’s absolutely tormented them in almost every game he’s played against them. They’d be poaching from a division rival, getting the best player available in the market, and getting someone whose playing style fits theirs perfectly.
Of course, he’s also going to cost well north of $30 million per year. The Steelers offered very nearly that to Brandon Aiyuk last year. But Higgins has a lengthy injury history that will make that investment a bit more risky.
The bigger problem might be that Higgins genuinely seems to want to stay in Cincinnati and his franchise tag amount will actually be a bargain compared to what he could make on the open market. Even if the Bengals decide the $26 million tag amount is too rich for their blood, they would likely have many suitors in a tag and trade scenario. They could even trade him for practically nothing,...
