Brooke Pryor
PITTSBURGH — The Steelers cannonballed into free agency Sunday night, acquiring wide receiver DK Metcalf from the Seattle Seahawks for a 2025 second-round draft pick and agreeing to a five-year, $150 million extension, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Steelers and Seahawks also are flipping 2025 picks in the sixth and seventh rounds, sources said.
Metcalf, 27, a second-round pick in 2019, requested a trade Wednesday as he entered the final year of a three-year, $72 million extension signed in 2022. He previously had one year left on his contract worth $18 million, but the Steelers worked quickly to secure their new wideout to a deal worth $30 million annually.
That figure puts him in rare air among wide receivers and among Steelers free agents. Only six other wideouts have contracts currently valued for at least $30 million annually, and before Metcalf’s extension, the most the Steelers had spent on an outside free agent was linebacker Patrick Queen‘s three-year, $41 million contract signed last free agency.
Metcalf’s trade comes only a few days after the Seahawks dealt quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders. Following both trades, the Seahawks have five picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 draft: Nos. 18, 50, 52 (via Pittsburgh), 82 and 92 (via Las Vegas).
In Metcalf, the Steelers finally landed their long-sought-after big-play pass catcher to round out a wide receiver room that lacked depth and star power behind 2022 second-round pick George Pickens. Metcalf averaged 15.0 yards per reception and 66.1 yards per game in 2024, collecting 66 receptions, 992 receiving yards and a career-low five touchdowns.
Metcalf was more productive in the first six games of the season, averaging nine targets. But after hurting an MCL in Week 7, Metcalf missed two games and averaged just under six targets per game over the rest of the campaign.
Since the Seahawks traded up to snag Metcalf out of Ole Miss with the final pick of the second round in 2019, the big-bodied wideout has averaged 1,054 receiving yards and eight touchdowns per season along with 14.4 yards per reception. Meanwhile, Pickens — the Steelers’ top receiver — averaged 64.3 yards per game and 15.3 yards per catch in 2024 during his third season in Pittsburgh. He also caught three touchdowns in an injury-shortened season.
Pickens is eligible for an extension this offseason as he enters the last year of his rookie deal, and general manager Omar Khan expressed a desire to keep the mercurial wide receiver in Pittsburgh when he spoke with reporters at the NFL combine less than two weeks ago.
“I can tell you that he has a desire to be great,” Khan said of Pickens, via the team’s website. “He has a desire to be great here. We have a desire for him to be great and to be great here with respect to the contract. But you know, we won’t discuss that publicly, and usually those things are addressed at a later date.”
The next-most productive wideout on the Steelers’ 2024 roster was fellow 2022 draft pick Calvin Austin III, who averaged 15.2 yards per reception and finished the season with just 548 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
The Steelers’ pursuit of a top-tier wide receiver dates back to the previous offseason, when they were in the mix for the 49ers‘ Brandon Aiyuk. Aiyuk, however, opted to remain in San Francisco with a four-year, $120 million deal. The Steelers also landed wide receiver Mike Williams at the trade deadline from the New York Jets for a 2025 fifth-round pick, but Williams wasn’t a major contributor after a game-winning catch against the Washington Commanders less than a week after being traded.
Though the Steelers significantly upgraded their wide receiver room with the Metcalf acquisition, they still don’t have a quarterback under contract for the 2025 season. Both Justin Fields and Russell Wilson are slated to be free agents when the new league year opens Wednesday afternoon, and sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that Fields wants to test the market before making an informed decision.
Wilson and Metcalf both starred together in Seattle, with Wilson serving as Metcalf’s quarterback for the first three seasons of his career.
The Jets also have expressed interest in Fields, the former Chicago Bears first-round pick, sources indicated to Fowler. Khan told reporters at the NFL combine that Pittsburgh’s top priority was sorting out the quarterback position; but Metcalf requested a trade earlier this week, expediting the Steelers’ roster-building timeline.
ESPN’s Brady Henderson contributed to this report.
