The Pittsburgh Steelers lost two key pieces of their passing game during the offseason after trading receiver Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers and letting Allen Robinson walk in free agency.
While the team signed veterans Van Jefferson, Marquez Callaway and Quez Watkins and selected Roman Wilson in the third round of the 2024 draft, there’s still a glaring hole in Pittsburgh’s WR corps.
Which is why ESPN’s Bill Barnwell believes they should trade for Tennessee Titans wideout Treylon Burks, a former first-round pick who’s presumably looking for a change of scenery after the team added Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd in the offseason.
“After trading away Diontae Johnson this offseason, the Steelers have an opening on the outside,” Barnwell wrote. “They used a third-round pick on Roman Wilson, who might profile best as a slot receiver earlier in his career, while former Rams wideout Van Jefferson hasn’t been productive in much better offenses as a pro. If the Titans are willing to eat $6 million of what’s left on Burks’ deal, I could see the logic in Pittsburgh sending a 2026 sixth-round pick to Tennessee to give him a fresh start.”
While Barnwell’s trade premise makes perfect sense, he’s short-changing both Burks and the Titans in his proposal.
Pittsburgh has a little over $18M in cap space, so there would be no need for the Titans to eat any of Burks’ salary, and a sixth-round pick two years from now is an awfully low return for a player two years removed from being drafted 18th overall.
If anything, the Steelers are the more desperate team to pull off the trade after losing nearly 27% of their total receptions, 30% of their receiving yards and 38% of their touchdown receptions from a season ago with the departures of Johnson and Robinson.
Although Burks has had an uneven performance during his first two seasons, he’s also dealt with asthma and battled several injuries, and he’s had to deal with the instability in Tennessee that came with catching passes from four different quarterbacks under two different offensive coordinators.
The 24-year-old showed promise during his rookie season in which he had 33 receptions on 54 targets, 444 yards and a touchdown, but injuries limited him to 11 games last season and the Titans’ questionable strength and conditioning program likely didn’t help.
Although Burks’ time with the Titans didn’t overlap with Arthur Smith, if there’s anyone who can maximize his talent, it’s the Steelers offensive coordinator. As the Titans OC, Smith coached A.J. Brown to back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and 19 total touchdowns during his first two years in the league.
Burks has been compared to Brown since his draft year, and the two play a similar style of game.
