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Pickens says he didn’t force his way out of Pittsburgh.
George Pickens’ time on the Steelers’ roster wasn’t exactly drama-free, but the new Cowboys wide receiver told beat writers Tuesday that he never requested a trade.
Pittsburgh dealt Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick to Dallas on Wednesday for a 2026 third-rounder and a 2027 fifth-rounder.
I asked #Cowboys WR George Pickens if he ever requested a trade from Pittsburgh. He said he didn’t.
“Super proud and glad to be here.”
He reiterated often that he’s excited to be in Dallas and to “help build a winning culture.”
It’s unclear how much of the trade had to do with Pickens as a locker room fit versus as a financial decision, as Pickens is entering the last year of his rookie deal. In the rumors swirling ahead of the trade, insiders had pointed to both, saying that the Steelers didn’t want to pay two wide receivers after adding D.K. Metcalf, and that there were “behind the scenes” issues between the team and the player.
Pickens, now on the Cowboys, focused on the future over the past in his introductory press conference. “I just … continue to grow,” he said via DLLS Cowboys’ Joseph Hoyt. “I feel like everyone in the world has to grow. … I’m just trying to build a winning culture, which they already have at the Cowboys. I’m just glad to be joining it.”
The Steelers need their 2024 third-round pick to take a big jump forward
The Pittsburgh Steelers traded star wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday morning. The Steelers received a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick in return, and also sent a 2027 sixth-round pick to Dallas.
With Pickens gone, the Steelers will need someone to step up and take on a bigger role. Whether they go out and add another free agent wide receiver is yet to be determined, so one name that ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler says Pittsburgh is counting on is 2024 third-round pick Roman Wilson.
“[The Steelers are] counting on [a] Roman Wilson Year 2 jump,” Fowler said on X. “This offseason he looks like a different player than from his injury-riddled rookie campaign.”
On Pittsburgh’s offense, post-Pickens trade:
–#Steelers remain in contact with Aaron Rodgers and are hopeful that he’ll be a Steeler. But, as of now, no hard update. -Team counting on Roman Wilson Year 2 jump. This offseason he looks like a different player than from his…
The Michigan product suffered a sprained ankle in training camp last season, which ultimately led to him not getting on the field as a rookie. The Steelers drafted the National Champion wide receiver with the hopes of him being a difference-maker, and they will be counting on him to take a jump in 2025.
Wilson predominantly played in the slot at Michigan, which is likely the role he will fill with the Steelers. If he takes a big jump, similar to how Calvin Austin did in 2024, the Steelers’ corps will be far better off than what they are currently slated to be.
The Pittsburgh Steelers made their second splash trade of the offseason involving a wide receiver, this time exporting instead of importing. They traded George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys after acquiring DK Metcalf from the Seattle Seahawks in March. This came after a 2024 offseason of will they-won’t they in terms of a trade for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. The star receiver eventually signed an extension with the 49ers, but tore his ACL seven games into the season.
Now, the 49ers are reportedly open to trading Aiyuk less than a year after giving him a $30 million per year contract. According to Mike Florio, the Steelers are on their radar in terms of potential trade partners.
“The 49ers would love to unload Brandon Aiyuk’s contract on the Steelers,” Florio said on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh.
.@ProFootballTalk on @937theFan “The 49ers would love to unload Brandon Aiyuk’s contract on the Steelers.”
With Aiyuk coming off a torn ACL, the Steelers could likely send a lesser draft pick to the 49ers for the former All-Pro if they were still interested in adding him. And while it may be an unpopular opinion, it would make a lot of sense to acquire Aiyuk.
Considering that the Steelers will all but certainly be drafting a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft, they should do all they can to ensure he is set up for success with proven targets. The Bears did that with Caleb Williams, bringing in Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze while already having D.J. Moore. While the Bears didn’t have the season they would have hoped to have, a lot of that falls on Matt Eberflus being a bad head coach. If the Steelers can send a fourth-round pick to San Francisco and make them eat at least a bit of the contract – say $6-8 million per year of the deal – that’s a deal that should at least intrigue Omar Khan and would make the offense instantly better.
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George Pickens is a Dallas Cowboy — did the Steelers handle their latest wide receiver saga correctly?
It’s time for an emergency Steelers Read & React – we’ll be publishing this column once every two weeks instead of every week over this part of the offseason, but sometimes the news is too big to ignore.
Early Wednesday, the Steelers traded wide receiver George Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and 2027 fifth-round pick.
The trade majorly impacts the upcoming season. Was it the right move for the Steelers?
What’s your reaction to the George Pickens trade?
Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
RB: I wasn’t all that shocked by the Pickens trade, but the timing was a bit surprising. After the Steelers’ 2025 NFL Draft concluded with no wide receiver selected and Pickens still on the roster, I figured the team was content with its receiver room entering the new season.
As a result, the Steelers are more or less at the same place they were a year ago when it comes to wide receiver following the Pickens trade. D.K. Metcalf, unlike Pickens, is signed long term at least, and he’s been a slightly more productive receiver over his career. But the Steelers are once again left with a good-not-elite WR1 and no clear WR2.
Ultimately, I think this was a good long-term move for the Steelers. The writing has been on the wall for a while that Pickens wouldn’t be signing a second contract with the Steelers, and the team didn’t look poised to make a Super Bowl run on the last year of his rookie deal. Trading Pickens gives the Steelers a better and earlier return than a compensatory pick would (it also can’t get erased by a free agent signing).
Beyond that, while Pickens’ talent has never been in question, he never quite took the leap the Steelers needed him to in 2024. His season was loud, but ended with just 900 yards and three touchdowns. His second contract would’ve been more about potential than past production, which is a risk considering Pickens’ hot and cold on-field effort. Omar Khan deserves credit for getting a 2026 Day 2 pick in return.
On paper, the trade makes perfect sense even if I personally feel robbed of the Metcalf/Pickens wide receiver combination that would’ve been insanely entertaining in 2025. Oh well.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Steelers’ strategy works out, though. Tanking is a strong word, but the team’s stockpiling of 2026 draft picks makes it clear that their main focus is on future seasons rather than the present.
It’s a reasonable strategy, but it also calls into question why the team has dabbled with a “win now” approach this offseason with their interest in Aaron Rodgers and signing a 34-year-old CB2 in Darius Slay.
Or maybe the Steelers organization has finally moved on from Rodgers, which greenlit the Pickens trade — there’s a theory.
While Metcalf is a long-term replacement for Pickens, the Steelers’ depth at wide receiver is now once again a roster hole. Even if Roman Wilson is better than expected, there’s still a glaring lack of boundary talent. Not drafting a receiver in 2025 could come back to bite the Steelers.
If Pittsburgh does target a wide receiver addition later this offseason to make up for losing Pickens, it can’t be a one-year rental. That would further muddy the waters of the team’s roster-building strategy.
Overall, the Pickens trade is a good move even if it doesn’t look like a surefire “fleecing.” But if there’s one thing the Pittsburgh front office has been overwhelmingly good at over the past few years, it’s knowing when to move on from wide receivers. Martavis Bryant, Antonio Brown, Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson… every trade was a Nostradamus-level roster move. Maybe this year’s wide receiver trade will look that good in a few seasons as well.
RP: If you’ve read this column over the past year, this outcome is not a surprise to you. We knew heading into last season that 2024 was going to be an important one for Pickens. The Steelers, as well as most NFL players, like to finalize extensions in the summer before the last year of a contract. Both Bickley and I have been skeptical that Pickens would receive such an offer, and after the 2024 season, Pickens no longer seemed like a culture fit for the team, despite his obvious talents.
DK Metcalf and George Pickens’ run as the Crash Bros
My immediate reaction was something Ryland and I addressed last week — the Steelers declining to draft a receiver. As Ryland mentioned, it was easy to take that decision as proof the Steelers were willing to ride out the year with Pickens. Now in hindsight, it’s hard to see the Steelers’ vision, even if the individual deal makes sense in a vacuum.
Ultimately, the whole thing came down to timing. Pickens’ character concerns are not some well-kept secret. The Cowboys actually got an up-close look last season of how Pickens can check out of a game when he’s frustrated.
I had completely forgotten about this , and then Jourdan Lewis calling George Pickens “weak” after the game
The Steelers reportedly tried to move Pickens during the draft, but no team was willing to meet their asking price. The Steelers, meanwhile, knew that trading Pickens for anything less than a Day 2 pick would not recoup enough value to make a trade worthwhile. Pickens may have become a headache for the coaching staff, but his talent level is too high to justify selling him off for pennies on the dollar. Teams may have been unwilling to part with picks from this draft, but unsettled picks in 2026? That’s a lot more palatable, especially for a Dallas team with a ton of roster holes of their own and a habit of pinching pennies when it comes to paying non-superstars.
Now we wait to see if any additional moves are coming. Without any, a lot of pressure will be placed on the shoulders of Calvin Austin III — himself entering a contract year — and Roman Wilson. Can either of them step up into a number two role? Can either of them stay on the field for running downs?
I received some pushback when I questioned if the Steelers erred in passing up a handful of receivers in the fourth round of the draft, but those concerns have now doubled. Since 2022 at least, the Steelers have confusingly toed the line between a full-blown rebuild and a win-now mentality. In an effort to avoid bottoming out, they’ve found themselves consistently stuck in the middle tier of contenders.
Right now, it’s unclear what the Steelers’ goals for 2025 actually are. Much of that rides on who is playing quarterback, but even a grand farewell tour from Rodgers might not lift them out of mediocrity.
Over the next several months, the organization will have even tougher questions to answer. I still believe they will extend TJ Watt, but the Steelers have made several surprising moves in the Omar Khan era. Would they really consider leaning into the skid and trade away Watt? If so, could Minkah Fitzpatrick also be sent out of town? I don’t think we can rule out anything.
Buckle in, folks, the 2025 season might be a bumpy one. Here’s hoping it’s worth it when the draft comes to Pittsburgh in 2026.
Join in on Steelers R&R by sharing your takes on this week’s topic. What’s your reaction to the George Pickens trade? Let us know in the comments! Feel free to pitch future questions in the comment section or on Twitter/X: tag @_Ryland_B or @RyanParishMedia.
The Steelers reportedly aren’t finished making wide receiver moves.
The Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off Wednesday morning by making a blockbuster trade, sending wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys with the main compensation being a 2026 third-round pick.
This leaves a hole in the Steelers’ receiving corps, which NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport noted and said the Steelers aren’t done making wide receiver moves.
“I would be surprised if the Steelers are done at the wide receiver position,” Rapoport said on Good Morning Football. “They are likely to at least sign one more, and there are a couple of talented wide receivers still on the market.”
There are several free agents that the Steelers could pursue. Keenan Allen and Amari Cooper are the two most noteworthy free-agent names, with the former being more productive in 2024. Allen had 70 catches and seven touchdowns during his lone year with the Chicago Bears. Cooper had 44 catches and four scores a year ago with the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills.
Gabe Davis is also a free agent, and his skillset is that of a prototypical Arthur Smith wide receiver, so his name is one to keep an eye on.
The Steelers appear to be back in the market for a pass catcher after trading away their mercurial receiver.
After months of speculation, the Steelers finally did what I’ve been prepping you for all offseason — they traded George Pickens. Whatever your thoughts on Pickens, the clues pointing towards his eventual departure have been there over the past year. Like any place of employment, an NFL team will have times when a talented player is not meshing with the workplace culture. As Pickens’ time in Pittsburgh wore on, it became clear that Pickens was both talented and a personality the Steelers were increasingly finding untenable for the team ethos they hoped to achieve.
This trade should invite some retroactive criticism of the Steelers’ draft, even if I think the trade is ultimately the right call. Pittsburgh was unable to convince a team to fork over a Day 2 pick in the 2025 draft for Pickens, but they were clearly still open to trading him. In Read & Reacts review of the draft, Ryland Bickley and I caught some flak for mentioning our concerns that the team didn’t target a receiver in the draft — especially in the fourth round when one of the draft’s most Arthur Smith-coded prospects, Stanford receiver Elic Ayomanor, was still available — but this move only hammers home our concerns about receiver depth.
So, where do the Steelers turn now? They may be willing to gut it out with Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson, Robert Woods, Scotty Miller, and Ben Skowronek behind DK Metcalf. That would signal a team selling out to run the ball and would likely feature a heavy dosage of 12 and 13-personnel packages. It would also become one of the least inspiring groups in the league heading into the new season.
Let’s take a look at some realistic options, starting with the open market.
Free Agents
Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images
Looking at the names of available free agents won’t inspire much optimism from Steelers fans. Keenan Allen (33) and Amari Cooper (31 in June) have the most name recognition, but both are well past their primes. Allen was never known for his run-blocking prowess, and while Cooper is at least respectable as a blocker, he’s been nagged by injury in recent seasons and had the fewest receiving yards (547) of his career in 2024.
How the Steelers plan to deploy their WR2 could say a lot about who they pursue. If the Steelers plan to use several single-receiver sets, they might not be as worried about bringing in a dynamic pass catcher as much as they are about finding willing participants in the run game. With that in mind, two veterans to keep an eye on are Chris Conley and Nelson Agholor.
Conley received PFF’s second-highest grade for run blocking among receivers while playing in San Francisco’s zone-heavy scheme. Agholor checks a lot of those same boxes, having previously played in run-heavy offenses like Philadelphia and Baltimore. Neither receiver has demanded much of a target share in recent seasons, so a signing would likely be dependent on their blocking chops. Conley also provides some special teams versatility.
Chris Conley showing how it’s done on special teams
Some other names that the Steelers might check out are Gabe Davis, DJ Chark, and Tyler Boyd, but I have questions about all three.
After setting career highs in receiving in 2022, Davis’ production has cratered, which led to his release from Jacksonville after just one season. Davis’ route tree mostly consists of vertical routes, which might be superfluous with Metcalf’s skill set. He’s shown unreliable hands in the past, and outside of his 2021 season, he’s been graded in the bottom half of the league as a run blocker by PFF.
DJ Chark has played for three teams in three years since leaving the Jaguars. Chark is another tall, lanky speedster with many of the same flaws to his game as Davis. Unlike Davis, Chark does have a 1,000-yard season to his name, but that came in 2019, which feels like ancient history at this point.
Boyd has a better track record as a blocker, though that has significantly fallen off over the past three seasons, according to PFF. So has his production, first getting crowded out by the Bengals’ talented receiving duo, and then failing to crack 400 yards for a Titans’ team with little competition outside of Calvin Ridley. And I can’t help but shake that the Steelers could have signed him last season, but they didn’t show much interest.
One last name Steelers fans should keep an eye on is Allen Lazard. Lazard is still currently under contract with the Jets, but is a likely candidate to be cut post-June 1st. Lazard joined the Jets because of his relationship with Aaron Rodgers, and could find himself in Pittsburgh for a similar reason, should Rodgers every decide to make it official.
The Trade Market
Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images
With the available free agents combed over, we can turn our gaze to potential trade targets. Unfortunately, the timing is far from ideal for the Steelers. Pickens was the most talented wideout receiving trade speculation, so the Steelers are unlikely to swing another trade as high-profile as their trade for Metcalf.
That means the Steelers are looking for trade partners who have a crowded receiver room and/or a player on the last year of a deal. If their team drafted a receiver during one of the first two days of the draft, that is another strong indicator of a team that might be willing to move a veteran player.
Taking that into account and looking at the rosters of other teams, these are the teams that stick out as potential partners: Green Bay, Chicago, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Denver, and Houston.
Green Bay
Green Bay makes the most sense due to their abundance of receivers. Rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden is off the board, but would the Packers be willing to move a player like Jayden Reed?
Reed comes off the field the most as Green Bay has relegated him primarily to the slot, but he offers some versatility and playmaking ability that could be appealing to the Steelers. But with two years remaining on his rookie contract, the Packers may be more willing to move guys like Christian Watson or Romeo Doubs, both of whom are free agents after the 2025 season.
Doubs might be the best fit for Pittsburgh, considering all of the dirty work he does for the Packers. Doubs isn’t the most technical blocker, but he shows enough enthusiasm to believe he’d buy into Pittsburgh’s offense. He’s also served admirably as Green Bay’s “sacrificial X,” a term coined by Yahoo’s Matt Harmon for an X-receiver who opens things up for other pass catchers based on how he is deployed.
Watson comes with some significant medical red flags, but when he’s been healthy, he’s the closest the Packers have had to a true, big-play receiver. Watson is averaging 16.9 yards per reception for his career. In limited time in 2024, he averaged 21.4 yards per reception. I would question the fit, as I think Watson would be even more superfluous with Metcalf than Pickens was. However, if the Steelers truly are intrigued by having a pair of size-speed demons on the outside, Watson would make a ton of sense.
If the Steelers are scraping the bottom of the barrel, Bo Melton is another name worth keeping an eye on. Melton isn’t as short as Calvin Austin and Roman Wilson, but he’s your classic kick return specialist who has shown some wiggle when he’s gotten on the field as a receiver.
Chicago
Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin via Imagn Images
If there is one relatively big-name receiver to keep an eye on, it’d be Chicago’s D.J. Moore. Moore would form an intriguing combo with Metcalf stylistically, with Metcalf filling the traditional X-receiver role and Moore finding openings in the underneath and intermediate areas as a Z-receiver.
With a new head coach in town, questions about his effort last year, and youngsters Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III on the roster, the Bears have already hinted at some discontent with Moore.
Whether or not that is typical offseason rumor mongering remains to be seen, but if the Bears would entertain it, Moore would easily be the most talented receiver on our list. Moore already has four 1,000-yard seasons to his name and 35 touchdowns since being drafted in 2018. Because he entered the league so young, Moore’s still only 28 years old.
DJ Moore appreciation post!
Last year he got a bit lost with the addition of Keenan Allen… BIG. YEAR. LOADING! pic.twitter.com/e9cKMdQTK1
The Steelers would have to vet the character traits and decide they’re willing to pay two receivers over $20 million a year to make this happen. It’s unlikely, but it would have felt negligent to ignore.
The Best of the Rest
Green Bay may have the most options potentially available, but there are several other teams with wideouts matching our criteria.
Minnesota drafted one of my draft gems, Tai Felton, in the third round. With Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison under team control through at least 2027, that means Jalen Nailor, on the last year of his rookie deal, could be available.
I would consider Tampa Bay a longshot, but they can’t be ruled out entirely. Mike Evans is effectively in the last year of his deal and would be a great complement to Metcalf. However, the Buccaneers‘ season would need to be in ruins before the trade deadline for them to even consider parting with him. They also resigned Chris Godwin and drafted Emeka Egbuka, both guys who are used heavily in the slot. So, where does that leave second-year slot receiver Jalen McMillan, one of my draft gems from 2024? It would be shocking to see them move on after he secured 8 touchdowns and 461 yards as a rookie, but if he’s getting edged out of playing time, it’s worth the call from Omar Khan.
Neither Denver nor Houston has players I’m particularly high on, but they have jumbled rooms that felt worth mentioning. Denver seems unlikely to cut ties with Courtland Sutton after the rookie season Bo Nix put forth, but the Steelers have been linked to him in the past. Any of Marvin Mims Jr., Devaughn Vele, or Troy Franklin might be interesting as players to take a flier on if they lose time to incoming rookie Pat Bryant. In Houston, Nico Collins is not going anywhere, nor are rookie wideouts Jayden Higgins or Jaylin Noel. However, John Metchie III or Justin Watson could be names that could be subjected to roster cuts in Houston’ crowded room, which also includes undrafted rookie Daniel Jackson, another one of my 2025 draft gems.
What do you think? Would you be happy with any of these players? Who do you think best fits what the Steelers do on offense? Let us know in the comments!
Think you can figure out which Steelers player we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out in our new guessing game!
Hey Steelers fans! We’re back for another day of the Behind the Steel Curtain in-5 daily trivia game. Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game! Feel free to share your results in the comments and feedback in this Google Form.
The goal of the game is to guess the correct Steelers player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED PLAYERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it.
After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media. We won’t go into other details about the game as we’d like your feedback on it. How it plays, what you think of it, the difficulty level, and anything else you can think of that will help us improve this game. You can provide feedback in the comments of this article, or you can fill out this Google Form.
The Steelers have a whopping 12 projected picks in 2026 — do they have what it takes to land their next franchise quarterback?
The city of Pittsburgh will be hosting the 2026 NFL Draft, and the hometown Steelers will be on the stage a lot.
Following the Steelers’ trade of George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys (Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick for the Cowboys’ 2026 third-rounder and 2027 fifth-rounder), the Steelers are projected to have a whopping 12 selections in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Can the Steelers use their 2026 picks to trade up for a quarterback?
The Steelers won’t be able to make a sizable jump up in the first round with just their handful of 2026 third-rounders. They’d need to use current or future second-round picks and/or their 2027 first-round pick, and even then, teams like the Cleveland Browns, which hold two 2026 first-rounders, are going to have more ammo to move up.
A lot depends on how Pittsburgh finishes the 2025 season, of course. Moving up from the 20s to the top 10 is certainly doable (it cost Pittsburgh a second-rounder and future third to move from No. 20 to No. 10 for Devin Bush in 2019) — but getting into the top five range is ridiculously expensive.
In the 2025 NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars had to spend their second-round pick, fourth-round pick, and future first-round pick to move up just three spots from No. 5 to No. 2 in the first round (Jacksonville did receive the Browns’ fourth- and sixth-round picks in that trade).
Moving up for a franchise quarterback won’t be cheap, especially if there’s a bidding war.
However, the Steelers have more than enough 2026 draft capital to easily move up a few slots in the first round. In 2024, the Vikings traded up twice in the first round: Swapping a fourth- and fifth-round pick for a sixth-round pick to move up from No. 11 to No. 10 to draft J.J. McCarthy, and then they sent a fifth-round pick and a future third and fourth to jump from No. 23 to No. 17 to draft Dallas Turner.
If the 2026 quarterback class is deep enough to have some first-round passers fall out of the top five, the Steelers can reasonably move up to get their guy.
Plus, having a surplus of picks in the 2026 draft means the Steelers would be more willing to trade away capital — it’s easier to part ways with a second-round pick knowing the team still has three Day 2 picks available.
Again, everything depends on how the Steelers finish in 2025, how many teams are looking for a franchise quarterback in 2026, and how deep the upcoming quarterback class really is. Nothing is certain, but Pittsburgh looks poised for a monster draft class in a year.
Lazard is currently under contract with the Jets, but he is “‘in play’ to be traded to the Steelers,” according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. The 29-year-old wideout started his NFL career with Rodgers in Green Bay and was signed by the Jets in 2023 as part of their effort to bring the four-time MVP to New York.
Lazard put up career-worst numbers in 2023 while catching passes from three different quarterbacks following Rodgers’ Achilles injury. He was a healthy scratch for the last two games of the seasons, but rebounded in 2024 with Rodgers back under center. Lazard missed five games due to injury and finished the season with 37 receptions on 60 targets for 530 yards and six touchdowns.
The Steelers have kept in touch with Rodgers since his visit and remain “hopeful” that he will play for the team this year, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Trading draft capital for Lazard would be another indication of Pittsburgh’s confidence that Rodgers will put pen to paper eventually.
Moving on from Lazard likely wouldn’t be an issue for the Jets after Rodgers’ departure this offseason. Their new regime signed two veterans with similar skillsets in Josh Reynolds and Tyler Johnson, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini, which could make Lazard surplus to requirements.
Lazard’s acceptance of a $7.5MM pay cut earlier this offseason makes his contract far more attractive in a trade. His 2025 salary is now just $2.25MM with $1.75MM fully-guaranteed and another $250k available in per-game roster bonuses, per OverTheCap. That’s more money than the Steelers saved by trading Pickens; while they still need to budget for Rodgers, they can still certainly afford to add Lazard to their ledger.
The Jets, meanwhile, will have to account for $6.55MM in dead money if they trade Lazard. A pre-June 1 trade would put it all on the books in 2025 and cost them an extra $1.9MM against the salary cap, while a post-June 1 trade would push $4.37MM to 2026 with $2.43MM of overall cap savings this year.
Lazard’s connection to Rodgers will no doubt interest the Steelers, especially if one acquisition would beget the other. However, they are still counting on a jump from 2024 third-rounder Roman Wilson after his disappointing rookie season, per Fowler. Injuries limited Wilson to just one appearance with five snaps and zero targets in 2024. A healthy offseason could give him a better chance at capitalizing on his impressive physical profile, especially if he’s catching passes from Rodgers instead of Mason Rudolph.
Pittsburgh now has three 2026 third-rounders they could use to add WR depth, as noted by Fowler, though it’s hard to imagine Lazard fetching more than a Day 3 pick. He might be a cheaper alternative to some of their other targets, which may be the team’s preference after their substantial investment in D.K. Metcalf. Using a late-round pick to acquire Lazard would leave the Steelers enough premium draft picks in 2026 to add another receiver on Day 2 or even move up in the first round for a quarterback.
Photo by Mario Hommes/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
The Steelers could be gearing up to bring a friend of Aaron Rodgers to Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Steelers traded wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday morning. Pittsburgh sent Pickens and a sixth-round pick in 2027 to Dallas in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.
While the trade gives Pittsburgh a large collection of picks to go quarterback hunting in 2026, they still need another wide receiver with starting ability. With the hole Pickens left behind, the Steelers could be looking to make Aaron Rodgers happy and bring in one of his long-time targets.
“Jets receiver Allen Lazard is ‘in play’ to be traded to the Steelers,” Florio writes. “Why Lazard? Because Rodgers completely and totally trusts him. And Lazard, for whatever reason, performs much better with Rodgers than he does without him.”
Lazard had 37 catches and six touchdowns in 12 games last year with the Jets. His best year came in 2022 when he caught 60 passes for 788 yards and six scores.
