The Steelers need a receiver, and Brian Thomas Jr. might be the perfect buy-low trade

The Steelers need a receiver, and Brian Thomas Jr. might be the perfect buy-low trade

By Wilson Simons

    If someone were to put a gun to my head and ask me to name the Steelers’ third wide receiver behind DK Metcalf and Germie Bernard. My last words would be a very unconfident “Kaden Wetjen?”

    That’s where the Steelers are right now. Michael Pittman Jr. went on injured reserve on Oct. 10 with a foot injury. Roman Wilson followed him a week later with a broken finger, and the earliest he can come back is Week 11. Ben Skowronek is out with a calf injury. Against Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh had to elevate two receivers off the practice squad just to field a full room.

    So when ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Saturday that several teams believe the Jaguars could trade Brian Thomas Jr. before the Nov. 10 deadline, and named the Chiefs and Steelers as potential suitors, my ears perked up.

    Steelers fans have been thinking about Thomas for a while. In the 2024 draft, Pittsburgh took Troy Fautanu at No. 20, and Thomas went to Jacksonville three picks later. Pittsburgh took Roman Wilson in the third round that year as its receiver. Then Thomas went out and had one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory: 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns, the seventh-most receiving yards by a rookie since the 1970 merger. Meanwhile, Fautanu dislocated his kneecap in practice and missed his entire rookie season. Plenty of people asked why the Steelers didn’t take the receiver.

    Two years later, Thomas has gone from the Jaguars’ future WR1 to a guy who didn’t play a single snap in the second half of their last game.

What happened in Jacksonville

    The decline started in 2025. Thomas caught just 48 of 91 targets for 707 yards and two touchdowns, and his 52.7% catch rate was among the worst in the league. He dropped passes, ran the wrong routes, and got criticized for pulling up in traffic before the ball arrived. Even his deep game disappeared: on throws of 20-plus air yards, he went from 451 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie to 187 yards and none in his second season.

    It’s also worth noting that his best stretch as a rookie came after Trevor Lawrence went down, with Mac Jones under center. He had 675 yards and five touchdowns over his final seven games of 2024, and he has never clicked with Lawrence the same way.

    Then the room got crowded. The Jaguars traded for Jakobi Meyers at last year’s deadline. Yes, that Jakobi Meyers, the one the Steelers wanted too. According to The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly, Pittsburgh made the same offer Jacksonville did, and Meyers picked the Jaguars. They gave him a three-year, $60 million extension. Parker Washington, a former sixth-round pick, broke out down the stretch, led the team in receiving yards and became Lawrence’s favorite target. Travis Hunter, the No. 2 overall pick, plays cornerback first but is eating receiver snaps too, and the Jaguars have been taking Thomas off the field to get Hunter on it.

    This season, Thomas has nine catches for 105 yards and a touchdown in six games. He hasn’t caught a pass in the last two. In London against Houston, he played 15 snaps in the first half and none after halftime.

What Thomas would give the Steelers

    At 6-foot-3 with 4.33 speed, Thomas is a true vertical threat, and that’s the one thing this offense doesn’t have outside of Metcalf. Bernard has been great on stop routes and screens, but he does his best work underneath. Put Thomas opposite Metcalf and safeties can’t sit on the short stuff anymore. That opens the middle of the field for Bernard, Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington, and it makes the run game easier too.

    It also fits Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has spent his whole career throwing to big outside receivers who can win downfield, and he loves taking his shots. Right now, when Metcalf is covered, there’s nobody else to throw deep to.

    The contract might be the best part. Thomas is in the third year of a four-year rookie deal worth about $14.4 million total, he’s under team control through 2027, and the Steelers would get a fifth-year option decision next spring. That’s cheap for a receiver with a 1,200-yard season on his résumé. And with Rodgers expected to retire after this season, it gives the next quarterback a 24-year-old receiver to grow with.

The risk

    The concerns are real. Drops, missed assignments and a reputation for shying away from contact don’t disappear because a player changes teams. If the problem is Thomas and not his fit in Jacksonville, the Steelers would be paying for 2024 and getting 2026.

    But this is a buy-low situation. His value has never been lower, and the Steelers don’t need him to be a WR1. They need him to be better than Kaden Wetjen for the next two months and a real No. 2 when Pittman and Wilson come back. A fresh start, a quarterback who loves throwing deep and a defense forced to respect Metcalf on the other side seems like the best chance he’ll get to look like his rookie self again.

    The Steelers lost out on Jakobi Meyers to Jacksonville last year. Getting Thomas from Jacksonville this year would be a nice way to even it out.

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