The Pittsburgh Steelers traded star wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday.
The timing was strange, with the Steelers choosing to hold onto Pickens through the 2025 NFL Draft, when they were reportedly only offered a fourth-round pick, before pulling the trigger on the deal on Wednesday morning that will bring a 2026 third-rounder and a day-three pick swap to Pittsburgh.
The Steelers got significantly worse at wide receiver on Wednesday, and on May 7, there aren't a lot of obvious ways to reverse that downturn between now and the start of the 2025 season.
From a football perspective, this is a bad trade. There's no way around that.
There's also no way around the fact that Pickens was a constant cause of headaches during his time with the Steelers, the Steelers were not especially interested in signing him to a long-term contract extension this offseason, and there was a very high likelihood of the combination of those events playing out in a negative way for the team over the next few months.
Pickens was a miscreant under what should have been happy times. The Steelers were 3-1 and he was coming off one of the best games of his career last fall, when he decided it was appropriate to play the Dallas Cowboys with " Open Fucking Always
" written across his eye black.
The idea of him happily going about his business after not getting paid, watching DK Metcalf getting paid instead, and then watching all of his targets go to Metcalf instead, exists only in fantasy land.
This was a bad football trade. The only reason to make it is clear: the Steelers were sick and tired of dealing with George Pickens . This was all about just being fed up with the player they were shipping out, and deciding that the whatever juice Pickens brought to the Steelers lineup was not worth the squeeze of his other antics.
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens sitting on the bench during a game against the Cincinanti Bengals on Dec. 1, 2024. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
That doesn't mean the Steelers front office should be absolved of criticism. Nothing has changed about Pickens' situation since the end of last season. They were proactive in trading for Metcalf, but through free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft, failed to add another piece that could offset the departure of Pickens.
A big-name free agent signing would have given up the game, and likely further eroded whatever return they could get for Pickens due to a lack of leverage, but a selection in this year's draft would have been more than understandable.
The Steelers used their fourth-round pick on Jack Sawyer , who will be locked into the No. 4 outside linebacker spot for the foreseeable future, with Stanford's Elic Ayomanor , Colorado State's Tory Horton and Utah State's Jaylen Royals — all projected Day Two picks — still on the board.
They also chose to take a couple of special teamers in Carson Bruener and Donte Kent instead of another swing at wide receiver with the likes of Tez Johnson , Ricky White, Kaden Prather and Konata Mumpfield available late in the draft.
Now, they'll once again be in a position where they'll need to scramble to fill out the WR2 portion of their depth chart, and again relying on a big season from an unproven Roman Wilson , who couldn't stay healthy as a rookie last year.
The Steelers are not better for trading Pickens. But they did head off a problem before it got worse, piled up even more draft capital for a big swing at quarterback in 2026, and still have some chance to salvage their wide receiver position for 2025.
What they're able to do with the draft pick, and whether Pickens is ever able to get his act together elsewhere, will go a long way toward evaluating whether this was the right trade down the road.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Saunders: There's Only One Reason for the Steelers to Trade George Pickens
