Six weeks into the season, only five NFL teams have just one loss — and the Steelers are among them. After building around Aaron Rodgers and adding DK Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey, Jonnu Smith, and Darius Slay, they’re starting to look exactly like the contender they planned to be. It would only make sense to make one more move to push all their chips to the center of the table ahead of the trade deadline, right?
According to CBS Sports insider Jonathan Jones, there isn’t expected to be anything splashy brewing in Pittsburgh.
“They could, we also have to remember what they did in the offseason, right?” Jones said via CBS Sports HQ. “They have done sort of a lot of what you would expect a potentially contending team to do, right there on the precipice. They’ve already done it. Now could they go out and send a conditional sixth-round pick for someone the next couple weeks? Of course they could absolutely do that. But in terms of a name, someone who’s a fantasy football player, I think they did all their fantasy football in the offseason.”
The trade deadline is still three weeks away from tomorrow, but the dominoes have already started to fall with major trades taking place around the league. Every other team in the AFC North has made a significant move and they all seem dead in the water already after six weeks. It sure feels like a reasonable time for the Steelers to make one more significant move, but there are a couple reasons to think twice.
They went the trade route last season to bring in veteran WR Mike Williams. Other than his game-winning touchdown catch against the Washington Commanders, he did basically nothing for the team. The Steelers were very slow to integrate him into their offensive plans. I worry it would be more of the same this time around.
It’s not like Arthur Smith’s offense has been good at getting more receivers than DK Metcalf and maybe Calvin Austin III involved anyway. Even with Austin out in Week 6, Roman Wilson was the only other wide receiver to catch a pass. And even he was barely involved.
And would the Steelers really do anything to jeopardize their stockpile of 2026 draft capital? It was central to their free agency plan in the offseason when they avoided signing compensatory free agents to maximize the comp-pick system. Turning around to pawn off a Day 2 pick is short-sighted when they have a chance to potentially move up for a quarterback in the draft.
Jeremy Fowler named Jakobi Meyers and Jaylen Waddle as two receivers worth watching in the trade market. Unless the Steelers can get one of them for cheap in a salary cap dump, that might be aiming too high. If anything, they might look to bolster depth rather than add another starter, maybe even at offensive tackle or other less flashy positions.
The Steelers have already pushed plenty of chips in. Maybe the smartest move now is knowing when to stop betting — and start cashing in.
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