NFL insider Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post still expects the Pittsburgh Steelers to take a big swing at a star wide receiver. He basically said the same thing in April (and nothing has happened), but he believes they’re financially set to make a run at either Brandon Aiyuk or Davante Adams.
“The Steelers are going to get another receiver. Whether it’s Brandon Aiyuk, whether it’s the Davante Adams scenario down the road. Whether it’s something else. I know they’ve budgeted in a way that they feel like they can execute one more big swing there,” La Canfora said during an appearance on The Jason Smith Show on Thursday.
Adams, who turns 32 in December, is a six-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time first-team All-Pro. There have been rumblings that he wants out of Las Vegas, potentially reuniting with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Adams was teammates with Rodgers in Green Bay for the first eight years of his NFL career.
“I’ll answer like this, if I’m going to be reunited with anybody, it would be Aaron, okay? But or be, you know, relocated, and be anywhere it would be with Aaron,” Adams said recently on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast.
“There was a lot of that stuff going on last year in the media and them asking, you know, ‘What are you going to do about this? Are you thinking about going here?’ and they talk about whatever without me even being involved in [the conversation]. And it ended up getting all the way to the point where it got in the locker room, and people was thinking that it was, you know, I was putting it out there to force (a trade). And I’m like, ‘Y’all just don’t understand man.’ You know, I hate to say it like this because it makes me sound like I’m trying to put myself on a pedestal..but when you’re the level, a certain level of player, it don’t have to come from you. And most of the time it’s not coming from you.”
According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football, the Steelers rank 31st in the NFL when it comes to spending at the wide receiver position. Aiyuk and Adams would both acquire significant compensation and draft capital. Adams not as much, but it would still be a hefty price.
Khan left the door open to adding a wide receiver after the end of the 2024 NFL Draft. He said that the team is in place that it can make a move to add to the position if it finds the right one, thanks to their recent restructuring of Alex Highsmith’s contract.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Khan said. “I’ve said it before. If there’s ever an opportunity to improve the team, we’re going to look at it, and if makes sense, we’re gonna go after it. We restructured Alex’s deal. It puts us in a position to be flexible with some things if there’s an opportunity to do something.”