The Pittsburgh Steelers used to churn out talented wide receivers, drafting and developing well. However, that hasn’t been the case in recent years. The Steelers have taken swings on receivers, but they’ve struggled to put together a decent pass-catcher group. They didn’t wait long to upgrade at the position this offseason, though. They traded for Michael Pittman Jr., swapping late-round picks with the Indianapolis Colts to acquire him. Ben Roethlisberger thinks that was an excellent deal for Pittsburgh.
“There’s some really interesting additions, and when I say interesting, I mean good interesting,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his Footbahlin’ podcast. “To me, it starts with the wide receiver, Michael Pittman [Jr.],” When I saw that, I was like, ‘Is this real?’
“How did Indy let him go? That is gigantic. DK [Metcalf], him, and you still have Roman Wilson, we believe he’s a really good talent, someone they need to infuse more in there… That’s a big one.”
The Colts didn’t get rid of Pittman because he’s a bad player. While he had a down 2025 season, the issue with him was money. The Colts gave wide receiver Alec Pierce a massive deal to keep him on their team. As a result, it was hard for them to justify keeping Pittman, who was also on a big deal.
They were likely going to get rid of him no matter what, which is why they took the Steelers’ deal, even though it wasn’t much in return. Their loss was Pittsburgh’s gain, though.
Pittman will turn 29 this season, so he doesn’t bring a lot of youth to the Steelers’ receiver corps. However, they needed a reliable secondary option next to Metcalf, and Pittman should fit that role like a glove. He’s played in at least 13 games in every year of his career, and he’s had at least 800 receiving yards in four of his six seasons.
Pittman and Metcalf should complement each other well. It’s unclear if Wilson will emerge as the Steelers’ No. 3 receiver because he hasn’t done much in his young career. However, the Pittman acquisition should at least take some pressure off him. Perhaps that will help him flourish.
The Steelers shouldn’t continue relying on trades to fill out their receiver room. They’ve got a lot of draft capital, so they could add another young pass catcher. However, the deal for Pittman was favorable for them, and it gives them an instant upgrade. We’ll have to wait to see him actually play for the Steelers before we judge the trade, but right now it looks like good business for Pittsburgh.