Proposed Trade Lands CeeDee Lamb with Pittsburgh Steelers

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb has not been participating in offseason workouts this year. He is awaiting a new contract and is holding out until the team and his representatives can work something out. Could an old-school rival such as the Pittsburgh Steelers take advantage of the situation?

2024 is the final season that CeeDee Lamb is under contract, as he plays out the fifth-year option on his rookie deal. Ideally, a long-term deal will get done that keeps him in Dallas for years to come.

But, until that happens, he will remain a holdout. And, for as long as he is holding out, there will be speculation about his future with the Dallas Cowboys. Trade rumors could start to pick up as several teams around the NFL would love to have a player of his caliber on the roster.

One of those teams could be the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh traded away Diontae Johnson earlier this offseason to the Carolina Panthers and hasn’t found a replacement yet. The team did select Roman Wilson in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but he projects more as a slot receiver.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been linked to Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel of the San Francisco 49ers as well. They are in the market for an upgrade opposite George Pickens.

But, what if they used Pickens as part of a trade to land CeeDee Lamb? That is what Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report has suggested. A blockbuster deal of Pickens and a second-round pick heading to Dallas in exchange for Lamb.

“Because Pickens is coming off a 1,000-yard sophomore season, this would be slightly closer to a player-for-player deal, with Dallas saving money and gaining some draft capital and Pittsburgh doing everything in its power to get this right.

This move makes quite a lot of sense considering the Steelers are in better cap shape than the Cowboys,” Gagnon wrote.

While Pickens is a more established player than the other options Gagnon suggested, it would be shocking to see CeeDee Lamb traded for that package. Pickens has a high ceiling, but wide receivers of that caliber have all landed at least one first-round pick.

That is where all negotiations will start and the Pittsburgh Steelers would have to pay more than Pickens and a second-rounder. They would run to the league office to get this deal done as CeeDee Lamb has cemented himself as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.