The wide receiver market i,s red hot. Other than maybe pass rushers and, of course quarterbacks, no position has a skyrocketing market value like the receivers. The Pittsburgh Steelers were part of that trend this offseason as they traded for DK Metcalf and quickly awarded him one of the most lucrative contracts at the position. With just a hair under $33 million per season on his four-year extension, Metcalf is currently fourth on the list of highest-paid receivers. According to Jeremy Fowler’s survey of league execs, coaches and scouts, Metcalf’s contract is slightly outpacing where he stands among players at his position across the league.
Metcalf didn’t make the top 10 but did land as an honorable mention as the 14th WR listed on Fowler’s ESPN survey.
“He’s still one of the biggest matchup problems in the NFL. He’s also still limited as a route runner in my opinion,” one NFL personnel evaluator told Fowler.
According to Reception Perception’s Matt Harmon, Metcalf did struggle on certain routes last year. He was asked to run a lot of curl routes in 2024 and had a limited success rate on those types of routes. His athleticism is excellent overall at 6-4 and almost 230 pounds, but his stop-start skills aren’t as sharp as some of the smaller and shiftier receivers in the league. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a top receiver; it just means he needs an offense catered to his skill set.
Arthur Smith has experience working with big-body receivers, such as A.J. Brown and Drake London, with reasonable success. He should be able to get Metcalf in favorable positions. At the end of the day, he’s still a 6-4 receiver who can run a 4.33-second 40-yard dash with one of the fastest top speeds in the NFL. And the Steelers have a nice complement to Metcalf with Calvin Austin III, who is more of a small and shifty receiver. How they force defenses to match up against that contrast should be interesting to watch.
DK Metcalf’s contract felt a bit rich when it was initially given out, but he’s signed through 2029. It was a savvy business move by the Steelers, who managed to get that contract in before Ja’Marr Chase reset the top value to over $40 million per season. Garrett Wilson already signed a deal that came in roughly around Metcalf’s $33 million average as that becomes the new floor for WR1s around the league.
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