The Pittsburgh Steelers traded for wide receiver DK Metcalf this offseason with the hopes of securing an alpha, WR1 for the 2025 season. It made even more sense once the team opted to trade George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys. The Steelers paid up to get Metcalf, and his four-year, $132 million seems like an expensive, long-term investment. As of today, Metcalf is currently the fourth-highest paid receiver in the league, behind arguably the three best players at the position: Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, and CeeDee Lamb.
While the contract numbers correlated with Metcalf’s production might make it look like an overpay, ESPN’s Dan Graziano explained in an article on Friday why some details of the contract make it a much more team-friendly deal for the Steelers.
“This looks like a pretty sweet deal for Metcalf, who has averaged 73 catches per season in his six-year NFL career and has caught 90 balls in a season only once,” wrote Graziano. “But in the current galaxy of top wide receiver contracts, this one isn’t so bad for the team. The Steelers will pay the 27-year-old Metcalf $35 million this year — a $30 million signing bonus and a $5 million salary — and $25 million in 2026. After that, it’s completely up to them. His 2027 salary of $20 million never becomes guaranteed, against injury or otherwise.”
“If they wanted to cut him after 2026, they’d have to do it by the third day of the league year in March 2027 to avoid paying him another $6.5 million,” Graziano went on to write. “So this is really a two-year commitment, and both sides seem to know it.”
In contrast to an infamous, player-friendly contract like Deshaun Watson’s fully-guaranteed five-year, $230 million deal with the Cleveland Browns, the DK Metcalf contract is not bad at all. Less than half of Metcalf’s contract is fully-guaranteed, and the Steelers have a lot of freedom when it comes to the contract following the 2026 season. At that point, they can evaluate his past two seasons in Pittsburgh, while weighing their other contracts, his potential replacements at wide receiver, and then they can decide whether to keep him or cut him and save money.
A two-year commitment — rather than a fully-guaranteed four-year commitment — is beneficial for a team like the Steelers with so many unknowns in the near future, none bigger than quarterback. Their 41-year-old starter Aaron Rodgers confirmed that he plans to retire after he plays out his one-year deal with the Steelers. This means that the team will be looking for another option, quite possibly a rookie or younger quarterback option, to hopefully be the next franchise signal-caller. It could take years for them to find the right guy, and the offense could go through even more turbulent years.
Regarding Metcalf, the question will be whether he can be the foundational, WR1 for one of these young quarterbacks, or if he’s not worth the cost based on his production this season and next.
Let’s hope that Metcalf makes it an easy choice for the Steelers, by balling out this year with Rodgers, and paving the way for the next Steelers franchise quarterback over the next four years.
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