{"id":527209,"date":"2026-03-10T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527209\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:10:08","slug":"even-with-michael-pittman-jr-steelers-still-lacking-ingredient-at-wide-receiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527209\/","title":{"rendered":"Even With Michael Pittman Jr., Steelers Still Lacking Ingredient At Wide Receiver"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers have agreed to a trade for a wide receiver in Michael Pittman Jr. That\u2019s not going to be enough, particularly in one area. Pittman may be many things, but he is not a splash playmaker. While DK Metcalf has the potential to be that, he wasn\u2019t last season. The Steelers need someone who can serve that role reliably and have needed it for some time.<\/p>\n

Calvin Austin III is a deep play threat, but once again, the Steelers had him at wide receiver last year. They were not a dynamic, field-stretching offense, except in fits and starts. At one point, Metcalf had a glimmer of hope about what they could do<\/a>, but nothing came of it.<\/p>\n

The thing is, Michael Pittman is certainly not going to be the Steelers\u2019 deep-play wide receiver. As Alex Kozora pointed out<\/a>, that has not been a staple of his game. Over the past two seasons, he has just 17 explosive catches of 20-plus yards. In that same time, Pittsburgh has lacked that, especially last season. They had a slight rhythm when Russell Wilson was on one, but beyond that, the deep ball has been absent from Pittsburgh since Ben Roethlisberger had a healthy elbow.<\/p>\n

And the quarterback is a big component of that, of course. If Aaron Rodgers returns, they\u2019re not going to be the Greatest Show on Turf or anything like that. But the Steelers won\u2019t have any chance of stretching the field if they don\u2019t have the wide receivers to do it.<\/p>\n

Now, adding Pittman can help the Steelers get a wide receiver like DK Metcalf more quality vertical opportunities, sure. Last year, they had nobody at wide receiver whom opponents respected, so they focused on Metcalf. Pittman will at least occupy the defense, which will be to everybody else\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the free agent market is not rife with the deep-play wide receivers the Steelers need. Arguably the most notable names are already accounted for, but they will have plenty of options in the draft. Pittman was always likely to be their big addition at wide receiver, anyway. The odds of them adding multiple eight-figure deals to that room is very low.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, it wouldn\u2019t be the worst idea for the Steelers to re-sign Calvin Austin. At least that\u2019s a bird in the hand, so to speak, and he can still run down the field. Maybe Mike McCarthy can even do a better job scheming him open. But a deep threat should probably be a priority for the Steelers in the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers have agreed to a trade for a wide receiver in Michael Pittman Jr. That\u2019s not going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,19205,949,82,519],"class_list":["post-527209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-michael-pittman-jr","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}