In March, the Steelers made an extremely uncharacteristic and literally unprecedented move by giving a market-level contract to a player who had not previously played for the Steelers. Through 10 games, have the Steelers gotten a proper return on their five-year, $150 million investment in receiver DK Metcalf?
The numbers say no.
Metcalf has been targeted 62 times. He has 37 catches for 551 yards and five touchdowns.
It works out to 6.2 targets, 3.7 catches, 55.1 yards, and 0.5 touchdowns per game. And he’s making $35 million this year and $25 million next year, with every penny guaranteed. (They also gave up a second-round pick to get him, plus a late-round swap.)
That’s not on Metcalf. The money suggested the Steelers would be committed to doing what the Seahawks didn’t do with Metcalf — get the ball in his hands far more often than they did. So far, the Steelers haven’t used Metcalf as much as the trade and contract hinted they would.
Complicating the situation is the Steelers’ decision to trade receiver George Pickens to the Cowboys. Pickens, who has 58 catches for 908 yards and seven touchdowns in 10 games, hasn’t suddenly unlocked a new well of talent. The talent had always been there. The Steelers failed to use it.
And the decision of the team that tolerated Antonio Brown’s antics for nearly a decade to dump Pickens became a scarlet letter for the 2022 second-round pick. If Pickens, after only three years, was too much for Mike Tomlin to handle, Pickens must be incorrigible.
No, he was simply a player who: (1) has high-end talent; (2) knew his team wasn’t utilizing it; and (3) became more and more frustrated by the situation. He was, basically, A.J. Brown without a Super Bowl roster around him.
Everyone is now seeing what Pickens can do. Steelers fans fairly should be wondering whether the contract that went to Metcalf should have gone to Pickens.
More broadly, Steelers fans should be wondering why they’d pay any offensive player $30 million per year without seemingly trying to get $30 million worth of production from him.
Will that change in 2026? The biggest factor is the quarterback. Pickens has one who will get him the ball when he’s open. Metcalf, even with an all-time great as the starter, does not.