The Pittsburgh Steelers came up empty at the trade deadline, but they were flirting with the idea of making a splashy move, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. They were one of two teams he named that reached out to the Miami Dolphins about WR Jaylen Waddle.
“The Dolphins held firm on wanting a first-rounder and maybe more for Waddle and despite calls from teams such as the Steelers and Broncos, he stayed in Miami,” Rapoport wrote via his trade deadline fallout column.
This was reported by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler earlier in the week, and is now confirmed by another major reporter.
If Miami wanted a first-rounder and “maybe more” for Waddle, it’s likely that the Steelers’ inquiry was short-lived. Or at least they put out a feeler and waited to see if the Dolphins would lower their asking price. Rapoport says they held firm, which is obviously why he ended up staying put despite interest from multiple teams.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Dolphins fired GM Chris Grier less than a week before the deadline. Many thought that could trigger a fire sale, but that didn’t give interim GM Champ Kelly much time to properly negotiate any splashy trades. They ended up dealing LB Jaelan Phillips for a third-round pick, but were fielding calls about Waddle, Bradley Chubb, and even De’Von Achane.
Can you imagine the chaos that Kelly had to deal with taking over the GM role with half the league blowing up his phone for potentially splashy trades? And you have to imagine that ownership was heavily involved in most of those conversations. They obviously want to be building for the future, but no ownership group wants the appearance of becoming the league’s scrap heap.
If Omar Khan was looking for a discount, he wasn’t going to find it in Miami.
The Steelers have done a lot of work to build up and protect their stockpile of 2026 draft picks, so it never seemed likely that they would part ways with significant draft capital. Still, they were interested enough to have made the call, knowing full well he wasn’t going to come cheap. That at least says something.
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