Texans Trade for Rams Wide Receiver Ben Skowronek

Another day, and another wide receiver had some speculation connected to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Los Angeles Rams were set to release wide receiver Ben Skowronek on Thursday after they drafted Jordan Whittington in the NFL Draft and added other pieces to that room throughout the offseason. That meant Skowronek, who had been with the team since 2021, is now looking for a new home. Instead, they are trading him to the Houston Texans, giving Houston even more depth than they already have on the team.

It’s not like Skowronek even remotely makes sense for the Steelers as a whole sale solution to their wide receiver questions. But, there are a few reasons why he made sense, even though he is in the same bucket as someone like Scotty Miller. Skowronek would be picked up for his receiving capabilities. He has done very little there in his NFL career.

He is an excellent special teamer. Skowronek was the Rams special teams captain last season, scoring 13 total tackles on the units. He even had a legitimate role on offense because of his versatility and blocking prowess. Whittington will bring that now for the Rams, but with the condensed splits that Arthur Smith runs and how he asks of his wide receivers in the blocking game, Skowronek made sense as a depth receiver on the outside.

It still seems like the Steelers are working the phones on the trade market to find someone, but at least Skowronek is different from the same archetype of wide receiver they are adding in Miller, Quez Watkins, and already had on the team in Calvin Austin III. Skowronek also would have brought far more value to special teams than those signings since he was a standout player with the Rams last season.

The other wrinkle? McVay used Skowronek as a fullback. Smith loves to have some type of fullback on the team, and Skowronek is a more modern type in that he plays mostly in-line as a wide receiver and could bring that versatility to the table. But the trade for Skowronek might still reverberate for the Steelers, and open up an option for the team to call about John Metchie or Robert Woods. But still, their search for a fool proof wide receiver plan will continue throughout the summer since neither of those names is a true No. 2 receiver.