PITTSBURGH — A year ago at this time, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin referred to the trade deadline as an “arms race.” In a league in which in-season trades used to be a rarity, the pendulum has swung far in the other direction. Now, teams in playoff contention are willing to push all their chips into the pile — no matter the price.

“If you’re trending in the right direction, if you’ve got a desire to be in this thing as the road gets narrow, usually you’re open to adding talent that can assist you, whether it’s attrition based or whether it’s just areas where you fall short,” Tomlin said on Tuesday. “That’s something that I think some of the competitive teams are interested in year in and year out.”

Sitting atop the AFC North at 5-3 with a two-game lead on the Ravens, the Steelers are one of those teams. Last week, they acquired safety Kyle Dugger to help fill the void left by DeShon Elliott’s knee injury. But as Tomlin met with reporters during his regularly scheduled news conference at noon on Tuesday, the question was: Would the Steelers keep shopping?

“We’ll see what happens,” Tomlin said. “I like shopping.”

Shopping and buying are two different things. While GM Omar Khan made a number of calls — specifically to inquire about Raiders receiver Jakobi Meyers and others — the 4 p.m. ET deadline came and went without a trade.

Meyers was ultimately dealt to the Jaguars in exchange for fourth- and sixth-round picks. Meanwhile, the Seahawks acquired the other impact receiver who was dealt, Rashid Shaheed, from the Saints in exchange for fourth- and fifth-round picks.

The quiet afternoon from a GM who has earned a reputation for aggressive wheeling-and-dealing made Tuesday a great disappointment or a great success, depending on your point of view. Those in one camp would argue that the Steelers already committed themselves to the current window with their busy offseason. They added 34-year-old Darius Slay, 31-year-old Jalen Ramsey, 27-year-old DK Metcalf, 30-year-old Jonnu Smith and 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers. They also re-signed 31-year-old T.J. Watt and re-worked the contract of 36-year-old Cameron Heyward.

Conversely, if Rodgers is playing well, why not try to surround him with as much talent as possible, especially when a number of the players just listed will be gone or past their primes by the time the next window opens with a young QB?

Those on the other side of the argument would point to the Steelers’ inconsistent performances on defense and in the running game and say it’s not worth giving up draft capital for a rental. Maybe it’s better to ride out this season with the current roster and go into a draft full of QB talent with a full arsenal of draft picks.

These are the hard decisions that have to be made in roster construction. Ahead of the season, as an “all-in” narrative was being perpetuated, Khan was asked about finding the balance between winning now and building a team for the long run.

“Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,” Khan said in training camp. “We’re building this team to win the Super Bowl this year. That’s our goal. At same time, part of my job is to manage (and) make sure we don’t sacrifice or do things that’ll hurt us in the future. Because our goal is obviously sustained success over time.”

Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look at what the Steelers’ approach on deadline day says about how the decision makers feel about the current roster.

Draft capital is king ahead of QB-friendly draft

The Steelers have been stockpiling draft picks, knowing that the 2026 and 2027 quarterback classes are expected to be loaded with talent. Pittsburgh currently is projected to have between 8-12 draft picks in next year’s draft, depending on if they get the full allotment of four compensatory picks. After Tuesday, they still have their full complement of picks, plus a third-round pick from the George Pickens trade and as many as four additional comp picks.

In that way, a quiet Tuesday in early November could lead to an eventful draft day in Pittsburgh in 2026.

Faith in the current receivers

In any conversation about the Steelers’ receiving corps, it’s important to recognize that Pittsburgh might be the NFL’s least WR-friendly offense; the Steelers run 11 personnel (three receivers) on a league-low 33.5 percent of snaps. Meanwhile, their primary personnel grouping is 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two receivers). They are also in 13 personnel (one back, three tight ends, one receiver) a league-high 14.2 percent of snaps, according to TruMedia.

What does that mean? DK Metcalf is almost always going to be on the field, often with Calvin Austin III. Everyone else is picking up scraps. The snaps counts and target shares reflect this dynamic. Currently, Metcalf has 467 receiving yards, more than double the next-most productive pass catcher. Among receivers, Austin is clearly second with 223 receiving yards, even though he missed two-and-a-half games with injury. Down the depth chart, Roman Wilson (114 yards), Ben Skowronek (35) and Scotty Miller (9) are taking what they can get.

Any receiver who joined the team would have needed to be, first and foremost, a clear upgrade over Austin to bump him out of his role as WR2. Otherwise, the Steelers would have been giving up draft capital for a receiver who would play, maybe, 30 percent of snaps.

An outside addition could have bumped Austin down the depth chart and, potentially, limited Wilson’s opportunity to grow through in-game experience. It’s been hard enough for Wilson to earn playing time. He’s been putting together a number of good practices. While that didn’t translate to success on Sunday against the Colts — he caught just one pass for four yards and then fumbled — behind the scenes, Rodgers is gaining more trust in his second-year receiver. Without a more-established receiver ahead of him, Wilson still has the best chance to swing the depth chart in one direction or the other over the second half of the season.

“I think it’s been a steady improvement in terms of their quality of play, particularly Roman of late, other than that boneheaded lack of ball security late in the football game,” Tomlin said on Tuesday. “Generally, there’s been an uptick in the quality of his play.”

There’s something in economics called opportunity cost. The price tag for an outside receiver isn’t just the draft capital — it also would have cost receivers not named Metcalf playing time and the opportunity to develop.

Time to feature the tight ends

As Tomlin answered a question about his young receivers, he pivoted to talk about tight ends.

“We don’t look at our eligibles as wide receivers,” Tomlin said. “We feel really good about our tight end group as eligibles, as well. You can’t talk about the passing game without talking about the contributions that we get from that group. We’ve been very open about that as well. When we acquired Jonnu (Smith) at the very beginning of the journey, we talked about, you know, that we have eligibles regardless — R-E-C receivers. And I still think we feel the same way.”

Of all the discussion points surrounding the deadline, this might be the most relevant. With Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth on the roster, the Steelers are currently employing two of the NFL’s 10 highest-paid tight ends. Both are making more than $12 million per year, according to Over The Cap. Add in massive Darnell Washington and you have one of the most unique tight end rooms in the league.

Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is certainly putting tight ends on the field, as the aforementioned 12 and 13 personnel figures illustrate. Still, if the Steelers are going to continue to lean into heavy personnel groupings and aren’t going to add to their receiver room, they can do a better job of highlighting the receiving talents of their tight ends.

While Jonnu Smith and Freiermuth are paid like top players at their position, Smith ranks 26th among tight ends with 25 receptions and 35th in receiving yards with 159. Freiermuth ranks 31st among tight ends with 19 catches and is 26th in receiving yards with 227.

Finding more ways to feature the tight ends in the passing game is one way to make people forget about the quiet deadline day.

Fewer roadblocks for MVS

The Steelers did officially add one receiver to their roster on Tuesday — well, at least to the practice squad — when they signed veteran Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Tomlin downplayed the move during his news conference.

“He’s just a practice-squader right now,” Tomlin said. “We’ll get him in the fold and get him working and check his overall level of conditioning, how he learns and some of those things.”

While Tomlin was careful to temper expectations for a 31-year-old receiver on his seventh team, Rodgers spoke glowingly about his former teammate last week. Because the Steelers didn’t add a receiver, the new addition will have a shorter runway to the playing field. Time will tell if he can climb the depth chart to become more than just practice squad injury insurance.