Will Steelers Double Dip at WR? Asking Price High for Top FA Target
The Pittsburgh Steelers traded for the top wide receiver on the market on Sunday, landing Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf and signing him to a five-year, $150 million contract extension.
If the Steelers want another wide receiver in the free agent market, it probably won’t come cheaply. In what is generally considered to be a thin free agent crop of receivers, there is strong interest in New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton, generally considered one of the best fits for the Steelers in free agency.
According to a report by Jordan Raanan of ESPN, expect interested teams to have to pay over $10 million for Slayton’s services when the market opens on Monday afternoon.
The Steelers may or may not still be interested in adding another wide receiver after trading for Metcalf. That probably depends on what their intentions are with George Pickens, who is entering the final season of his contract. It’s hard to envision the Steelers signing Pickens to a long-term contract extension after committing significant resources to Metcalf, so he could potentially be traded this offseason.
That could put the Steelers back into the wide receiver market quickly, and though handing out another eight-figure per year contract at that position would be unprecedented, so was the trade for Metcalf in the first place.
But the price tag comes with a gamble. Slayton, 28, is coming off the second-worst statistical season of his NFL career. In 2023, he had just 39 catches for 573 yards and two touchdowns in 16 games.
Slayton has 259 catches for 3,897 yards and 21 touchdowns in his six-year NFL career. His best season came in 2023 when he recorded a career-high 50 catches for 770 yards.
The Steelers will still have plenty of salary cap space, even after trading for and signing Metcalf. They entered the week with over $60 million in cap space and have the ability to create up to another $60 million with releases, extensions and restructuring.