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Brooke Pryor
PITTSBURGH — By sending George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys earlier this week, the Steelers assured that yet one more huge receiver drafted by the staff will not see a second contract in Pittsburgh.
Of 16 extension-eligible huge receivers drafted by the staff since 2007, three have acquired second contracts. 5 performed out their four-year offers and departed in free company. Two had been traded throughout their rookie offers. 4 had been reduce earlier than ending these offers and one was signed off the Steelers’ follow squad to a different staff’s lively roster.
Although the group has a popularity of efficiently drafting and growing its huge receivers, the Steelers’ current historical past displays the leaguewide challenges that include evaluating the place and cultivating homegrown expertise.
The primary predicament groups face is sifting by means of the sheer quantity of gamers on the place, one expertise evaluator informed ESPN. Thanks partially to pass-heavy offenses and a shortage of elite cornerback play in school soccer, every draft class has a wealth of huge receivers with huge numbers. These school offenses typically require receivers to run far fewer routes than they’d within the NFL, that means there’s extra guesswork concerned in figuring out a large receiver’s NFL potential.
“It is a true projection,” the evaluator mentioned.
Although most of their receivers did not get second contracts, the Steelers had a stretch of success from 2009-10 in figuring out and drafting Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown. However in lots of circumstances, groups throughout the league wrestle to hit on huge receivers. And because the haystack across the needle grows thicker with every draft class, bringing in a veteran through commerce is a most well-liked roster-building technique.
The Steelers did simply that this offseason by buying DK Metcalf in a commerce from Seattle and forgoing a large receiver within the draft. The staff additionally signed veteran Robert Woods to a one-year deal, persevering with a current development of rounding out its receiving corps with older gamers like Allen Robinson and Van Jefferson.
And after bringing in a recognized performer in Metcalf — and subsequently signing him to a four-year, $132 million contract extension — the door opened to lastly transfer on from Pickens.
Pickens is the sixth receiver within the Mike Tomlin period to be drafted by Pittsburgh and ultimately traded to a different staff. 5 of these gamers — Pickens, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, Martavis Bryant and Brown — had been dealt partially due to issues involving their conduct. The commerce that despatched Sammie Coates, a 2015 third-round decide, to the Cleveland Browns was extra about his damage historical past and roster match. However normal supervisor Omar Khan mentioned the sample of trades is not going to influence how the group builds its receiver depth.
“A few of that is simply actually coincidence the way it’s performed out with the place. We’re all the time making an attempt to get good gamers no matter what place it is at and at any level within the yr,” Khan mentioned.
“We’re chasing a championship, and each determination we make is predicated on making an attempt to win a championship not solely sooner or later however this yr.”
Even earlier than buying and selling Pickens, Steelers proprietor Artwork Rooney II was requested in his end-of-season information convention if the sample of troubling conduct from Steelers huge receivers might influence how the staff evaluates the place.
“I feel each staff appears to have one or two guys in that room that you must handle them appropriately,” Rooney mentioned in January. “I nonetheless assume George has sufficient expertise that we have to attempt to work and see if we are able to get him to satisfy the expertise that he actually has. Who is aware of if we are able to get there? We’ll see. However when you may have guys which might be as gifted as among the guys you are in all probability considering of, you attempt to work with them and have them assist you achieve success.”
However up to now 5 months, the Steelers reached the identical willpower with Pickens that they beforehand reached with Brown, Johnson, Bryant and Claypool.
Whereas it is unclear if the Steelers noticed warning indicators of doubtless disruptive conduct of their predraft evaluations of the 4 beforehand traded huge receivers, Pickens had a number of purple flags. He was ejected for combating in a sport in opposition to Georgia Tech in 2019, and because of this was suspended for the primary half of the SEC championship sport in opposition to LSU. At the very least one NFL staff took him off their draft board after being turned off by his conduct throughout his predraft go to, in response to a high-ranking staff govt.
The Steelers, although, dismissed any character issues.
“I do not even perceive the place that is coming from,” Tomlin mentioned in October 2022 when requested about Pickens’ taking part in type deterring different groups within the predraft course of. “This man is doing all the things that we ask him to. He is taking part in good ball. Lots of people have incidents of their school background. I am actually not going to carry that in opposition to him. We did our due diligence. We had been utterly comfy along with his character. He has displayed that since he is been right here. So, I considerably resent that.”
And but, these incidents continued by means of his skilled profession. Outbursts at teammates and throwing his helmet on the sideline. Grabbing one other participant by his face masks and yanking him down after the sport. Preventing with one other participant throughout an onside kick return. Preventing with a unique participant throughout a Hail Mary try.
For as gifted as Pickens is, the noise round all the things else that comes with him appeared to achieve a crescendo for the Steelers.
“I can not actually change anybody’s opinion,” Pickens mentioned of out of doors perceptions throughout his introductory information convention name in Dallas. “Me, personally, I simply proceed to develop. I really feel like all people on the planet has to develop. You grow old and older as you develop, and I am simply making an attempt to construct a successful tradition, which they have already got on the Cowboys. I am simply glad to be becoming a member of it.”
Although Pickens might nonetheless change the narrative relying on the result of his Steelers profession, current historical past suggests the Steelers are profitable at timing these choices.
Previous to Pickens, the staff’s two earlier trades involving drafted huge receivers despatched Johnson to the Carolina Panthers for cornerback Donte Jackson and a picks swap, whereas Claypool went to Chicago for a No. 32 decide the Steelers used to take CB Joey Porter Jr. Claypool, as soon as a second-round decide, managed simply 217 whole receiving yards with the Bears and Miami Dolphins. He wasn’t on a roster in 2024.
Johnson, in the meantime, had 375 mixed receiving yards as he pinballed across the league in tumultuous stints with the Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans.
And maybe probably the most notable well-timed commerce by the Steelers was the transfer to ship Brown to the Raiders after the 2018 season.
The Steelers gained three divisional titles and three playoff video games from 2014 to 2018 thanks largely to Brown’s consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. However an escalation of the huge receiver’s actions throughout the 2018 season — skipping practices, blowing up at teammates and getting right into a social media altercation with a staff worker — led to the staff dealing him within the offseason.
Although Brown gained a Tremendous Bowl as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after leaving Pittsburgh, his remaining years within the NFL had been punctuated by much more drama. He completed with simply 1,084 yards over three years after posting six consecutive seasons of a minimum of 1,000 yards.
Within the timing of the commerce and its aftermath, the Steelers appeared to maximise Brown’s expertise whereas minimizing his damaging traits.
Buying and selling away one of many staff’s finest offensive playmakers — particularly after the NFL draft — with seemingly restricted choices to backfill the WR2 place is dangerous. However it’s simply as dangerous to maintain a participant who incurred pricey on-field penalties, confirmed up late to video games, threatened to combat a fan in a social media remark and wrote an specific message on his eye black for a prime-time sport.
If the Steelers’ prior expertise is any indication, it “made sense for everybody.”
