Steelers Avoid NFL Draft Drama

The Pittsburgh Steelers paid a heavy price for DK Metcalf. It first took a second-round pick to pry him away from the Seattle Seahawks, and then they had to sign him to a massive extension that made him one of the highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL.

Because of the Metcalf trade, the Steelers didn't make a pick in the second round of this most recent draft. The organization regularly finds talent in that round. The last four second-round picks of the team are center Zach Frazier, cornerback Joey Porter Jr., wide receiver George Pickens, and tight end Pat Freiermuth. There's little doubt that they would've selected another quality player in the 2025 draft. Thankfully, the Steelers were spared from the drama that the rest of the NFL is experiencing with their most recent second picks.

The contractual landscape for rookies is changing drastically and rapidly. Where things currently stand, just one second round pick from the most recent draft has signed his rookie deal. The problem is that the Houston Texans fully guaranteed the money in pass-catcher Jayden Higgins' deal. It was a first for the NFL, and it's led an unprecendented standoff between 30 second-round picks and their drafted organizations.

Meanwhile, the Steelers are on the sidelines, completely uninvolved in this mess. That DK Metcalf trade feels a little sweeter right now.

The Steelers have had a wild and surprising offseason already. The last thing they need is another contract holdout. The negotiation with superstar edge rusher T.J. Watt is reaching a contentious place, and he's unlikely to show up when training camp opens.

That type of contractual issue takes up all of the space when it comes to financial issues in PIttsburgh. There's no capacity, or perhaps more bluntly, not a single care to be given, about a second-round pick holding out when you're trying to extend the team's best defensive player by a mile.

Thankfully, the Steelers did themselves an inadvertent favor when they sent their 2025 second-round pick to Seattle. Now, the rest of the NFL can set the precedent. Will second-round pick contracts become fully guaranteed or will the standoff end in the players caving to the drafting organizations? The Steelers don't know, and they don't have to. Whatever comes of this, they now have a playbook for the second round in 2026. It wasn't their intention, but the Steelers added a superstar wide receiver and saved their organization a massive headache when they traded away their most recent second-rounder.