PITTSBURGH -- Moving significant assets to acquire an All-Pro receiver and inking him to a massive extension before solidifying the quarterback position is a risk.
And yet, for Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan, the reward of landing wide receiver DK Metcalf on the eve of the free agency negotiation period far outweighed the risks of making an out-of-order roster-building move.
"When you have the opportunity to obtain a player of that caliber, at least the way we see DK, I don't think you can," Khan said when asked about being apprehensive to make the move without a quarterback. "You [can't] wait around at those opportunities, you have to jump at them. It worked out, and he wanted to be here. And we wanted him here, and we weren't going to let that opportunity go."
In Metcalf, the Steelers finally landed the kind of vertical, big-play threat they had chased for nearly a year. While Metcalf's acquisition could hint at the end of George Pickens' tenure in Pittsburgh or complicate offensive decisions in crunch time, the Steelers' brass in Palm Beach, Florida, for the annual league meetings said they viewed Metcalf as a complement, not a replacement, to their 2022 second-round pick.
"You need more than one receiver in this league," Khan said. "And we're fortunate we have George and Calvin [Austin III] and excited about what Roman [Wilson] is going to be able to do for us."
To coach Mike Tomlin, while both Metcalf and Pickens are vertical threats, each has different valuable traits.
"I don't necessarily view them as similar to be quite honest with you," he said. "They're both downfield capable, but they're different people. I mean DK is a big man. GP is tall, and there's a difference."
The long and lanky Pickens led the Steelers with 900 receiving yards and averaged 64.3 yards per game in 2024. Fellow 2022 draft pick Calvin Austin III had the next most among receivers with 548 yards, slotting in behind tight end Pat Freiermuth's 653 yards. In Seattle, the 6-4, 235-pound Metcalf was second on his squad with 992 receiving yards and averaged a team-best 15 yards per reception. By comparison, Pickens averaged 15.3 yards per reception in 2024 and has a career average of 16.3 yards per reception.
"There's very little on the football field from a wide receiver perspective that he can't do," Tomlin said of Metcalf. "He's got short game, he's got long game. He's a combat-catch guy. He's got run after. He's a devastating run blocker. We're really excited about the addition of DK Metcalf, and we're going to use all those talents."
Though the Steelers went into the 2024 season with five wide receivers on the 53-man roster, the position lacked depth behind Pickens. Aware of the weakness, the Steelers doggedly pursued a trade for 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, but he ultimately remained with the 49ers by signing a four-year, $120 million extension in August. Making matters worse, 2024 second-round pick Roman Wilson appeared in just one game as he battled a series of injuries that began during training camp.
The Steelers attempted to remedy their receiver issues with a trade-deadline acquisition of Mike Williams from the New York Jets, but he finished the year with nine catches for 132 yards and a touchdown.
By the end of the season, the Steelers were one of 11 teams without a 1,000-yard receiver, and they finished with the seventh-fewest receiving yards.
Just two teams, the Detroit Lions and the Las Vegas Raiders, had two players with at least 1,000 receiving yards: Detroit's Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams and Las Vegas' Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers.
In bringing Metcalf into the fold, the Steelers could set themselves up to become one of those teams in 2025 -- if they sort out who will be throwing to their elite receiving tandem.
One thing the Steelers say won't be an issue? Managing two alpha receivers who both want the ball in crunch time.
"We'll figure that out, but that's not a problem as I see it," Tomlin said. "Guys that want to be significant reasons why we're successful, guys that have the talent to do so ... I'll stand in line for those issues."