While the Pittsburgh Steelers deal with injury concerns, they also must face what they failed to do before the 2025 NFL trade deadline. And here is the biggest mistake they made.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume the Steelers have Super Bowl aspirations. Maybe they don’t. But standing pat with their current offensive makeup leaves them ill-equipped to win postseason games.
That’s if they get there.
Steelers fell silent at the trade deadline
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the Steelers needed a WR2 to pair with D.K. Metcalf. As good as Aaron Rodgers can still be, his efforts won’t carry a team that doesn’t have enough weapons.
Last year, the Steelers traded for Mike Williams and edge rusher Preston Smith. But the Steelers wouldn’t part with the capital it would have taken this year to get a guy like Jaylen Waddle from the Dolphins.
Tomlin and company apparently thought it would be best to stay under the radar at the deadline, according to ESPN.
“I just know that if you’re trending in the right direction, if you’ve got the desire to be in this thing, as the road gets narrow, usually you’re open to adding talent that can assist you, whether it’s attrition-based or whether it’s just areas where you fall short,” Tomlin said Tuesday when asked if he thought there was a trend of teams becoming more aggressive at the trade deadline. “And that’s something that I think some of the competitive teams are interested in year in and year out. It’s just a natural component of this thing.”
Maybe the Steelers made it clear earlier this year. They didn’t seem to have the intention of throwing their 2025 hat into the Super Bowl ring. When they jettisoned George Pickens to the Cowboys, they greatly impacted the thump of their offense.
Steelers were rumored to be in on trades
Apparently, they had discussions with the Raiders about Jakobi Meyers, but the Jaguars were willing to pay more. However, the guy they could have used even more would have been Rashid Shaheed, who packed his bags to travel from the Saints to the Seahawks.
Now, the Steelers will move forward with a receiver room of Metcalf, Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson, Ben Skowronek practice squad signee Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Yeah, nobody is turning heads there.
Maybe Wilson will be the guy who helps turn things around, according to The Athletic.
“I think it’s been a steady improvement in terms of their quality of play, particularly Roman of late, other than that boneheaded lack of ball security late in the football game,” Tomlin said. “Generally, there’s been an uptick in the quality of his play.”
Also, Tomlin pointed to his tight ends.
“You can’t talk about the passing game without talking about the contributions that we get from that group,” Tomlin said. “We’ve been very open about that as well. When we acquired Jonnu (Smith) at the very beginning of the journey, we talked about, you know, that we have eligibles regardless — R-E-C receivers. And I still think we feel the same way.”
And it wasn’t just the receiver positions. Injuries have hurt the defense. They did add safety Kyle Dugger to the secondary, and that should help them stay competitive for a playoff spot with the Ravens lurking over their shoulders.
It’s not like the Steelers went into the tank. But they certainly didn’t move any big chips toward the middle of the table. It’s an odd place to be for a team that had its general manager, Omar Kahn, speak big words in the preseason.
“Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,” Khan said in training camp. “We’re building this team to win the Super Bowl this year. That’s our goal. At same time, part of my job is to manage (and) make sure we don’t sacrifice or do things that’ll hurt us in the future. Because our goal is obviously sustained success over time.”
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