A Steelers-Panthers trade to give reliable veteran to Justin Fields

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a completely revamped offense for the 2024 season. They flipped their quarterback room on its head, adding Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to replace the horrendous trio of signal callers that they had last season.

But, their wide receiver room is lacking quite a bit. And by lacking, I mean it's one of the worst overall wide receiver rooms in the entire league, rivaling the New England Patriots for the worst unit in football.

Pittsburgh is led by George Pickens, who is bound for a breakout year this season. He's looked spectacular through two games despite the stat sheet not completely backing that up. But the rest of Pittsburgh's receivers have combined for five catches and 28 yards through two games. The Steelers are using their tight ends and running backs in the passing game more than their wide receivers, strictly because of how bad their depth is at wideout.

Pittsburgh hasn't seen 2024 draft pick, Roman Wilson, yet, as Wilson recovers from an injury. Still, they could part ways with a few late round picks to acquire a wide receiver.

A Steelers-Panthers trade that solves Pittsburgh's biggest concern

Enter the biggest dumpster fire organization in the league right now, the Carolina Panthers. Carolina has benched their 2023 first overall pick, Bryce Young, just 18 starts into his young career and there's been a ton of speculation that Carolina could look to deal from their wide receiver room to acquire some additional draft capital.

Adam Thielen is the name that comes to mind here, as Pittsburgh dealt the other available Carolina wide out, Diontae Johnson, to the Panthers this past offseason. The Panthers could look to move Thielen and Pittsburgh is the perfect landing place.

Let me break this trade down a bit in simpler terms. The 2025 sixth going to the Steelers is basically Pittsburgh trading their fifth-round pick back a round. The Panthers would move up a round, from a sixth the Rams' fifth that Pittsburgh currently owns.

The second half of the trade is Pittsburgh throwing in a seventh-round pick in both the 2025 and 2026 drafts to make the value equal in this deal.

Thielen is a talented receiver that would provide quite a bit of stability to the Steelers offense.

This deal would provide Carolina with the additional draft capital that they need. That franchise is so far away from being competitive that having a veteran receiver like Thielen really provides them no real benefit. Adding a few more draft picks and moving up a round in the 2025 draft is much more valuable to them.