May 10, 2025 4 min read

By Dale Lolley

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

One thing about the Steelers’ 2025 offseason, it’s been eventful.

From the still-ongoing flirtation with Aaron Rodgers to the trade for wide receiver DK Metcalf and most recently the trade of wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys, the Steelers have made headlines not just in Pittsburgh, but across the sporting world.

The trading of Pickens is a tone setter. The star wide receiver was nearly as troublesome on the field as he is talented.

Head coach Mike Tomlin was asked multiple times over the previous three years about on-field incidents involving his young wide receiver, from failing to block on a potential touchdown run to having an expletive written on his face in eyeblack to outbursts when he didn’t get the ball to multiple dust ups with opposing players. Pickens was seemingly always the center of some kind of distraction.

But when the Steelers didn’t trade him during the NFL Draft a couple of weeks ago, it looked as if they might hold onto the mercurial receiver for the final year of his rookie contract.

After all, a duo of Metcalf and Pickens could be one of the NFL’s better starting duos.

The move was not made during the draft because the Cowboys wouldn’t meet the Steelers’ asking price. After the Cowboys failed to add a wide receiver in the draft, things changed.

The Steelers weren’t inclined to give Pickens a new deal.

Given his actions in the past, could he be trusted to do anything at training camp or would he a “hold in” before the season begins? Would he give 100 percent during the season? Would he continue to be a distraction?

Now, those are Dallas’ issues.

The Steelers, meanwhile, find themselves back in a situation in which they are all too familiar since trading Diontae Johnson last offseason to the Carolina Panthers – needing help at wide receiver, even after signing veteran Robert Woods following the draft.

Metcalf, Pickens, Calvin Austin, Roman Wilson, Woods and Ben Skowronek would have been a viable NFL receiving corps.

With Pickens out of the equation, it doesn’t look quite as good unless Wilson, who played only five snaps in his rookie season because of injury, lives up to his status as a third-round draft pick last year. But that’s something the Steelers won’t know more about until after minicamp.

After making the deal with the Cowboys, and with what looks like a compensatory pick haul for next season with additional draft picks in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, the Steelers now have 12 picks, including three in the third round.

They’re most certainly not going to make 12 picks.

Some of those picks could be packaged to maneuver to acquire a higher first-round pick, possibly a quarterback, next year. But that will likely involve the picks on the first two days of the draft, not the others.

Those extra picks were something the Steelers were lacking last year in their efforts to acquire additional help at receiver, something they finally did at the trade deadline when they picked up Mike Williams from the New York Jets.

There’s another move coming. It’s just a matter of when.

There are still unsigned veterans available: Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen and Gabe Davis among them.

There also could be some veterans available via trade. Those trades might not take place soon. They might not even take place by the start of training camp. But they will be coming.

In the meantime, the Steelers just sent a very important message to their locker room. No matter how talented a player you are, you’re not bigger than the team.

If players didn’t get that memo when the Steelers dealt Johnson last season, they most certainly should have gotten it with the jettisoning of Pickens.

Johnson, by the way, was traded by the Panthers to the Ravens, refused to enter a game for them, was released and signed by the Texans. He was then re-signed by the Ravens in the postseason, with Baltimore hoping to get a compensatory selection in return if a team decided to take a chance on him.

Nobody did until the Browns signed him last week – for the veteran minimum, no signing bonus and no guarantee to even make the team.

That should have been a wakeup call for Pickens. If it wasn’t, being traded just might be.

Dale Lolley hosts The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.