{"id":32104,"date":"2025-05-07T22:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T22:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/32104\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T22:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T22:15:13","slug":"jets-wr-allen-lazard-in-play-for-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/32104\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets WR Allen Lazard ‘In Play’ For Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

After trading George Pickens<\/a> to the Cowboys<\/a>, the Steelers could be in the market to add depth at wide receiver. Their pursuit<\/a> of Aaron Rodgers<\/a> may point them towards one of his favorite targets: Allen Lazard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lazard is currently under contract with the Jets, but he is \u201c\u2018in play\u2019 to be traded to the Steelers,\u201d according to Pro Football Talk\u2019s Mike Florio<\/a>. The 29-year-old wideout started his NFL career with Rodgers in Green Bay and was signed by the Jets in 2023 as part of their effort to bring the four-time MVP to New York.<\/p>\n

Lazard put up career-worst numbers in 2023 while catching passes from three different quarterbacks following Rodgers\u2019 Achilles injury. He was a healthy scratch for the last two games of the seasons, but rebounded in 2024 with Rodgers back under center. Lazard missed five games due to injury and finished the season with 37 receptions on 60 targets for 530 yards and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Steelers have kept in touch with Rodgers since his visit and remain \u201chopeful\u201d that he will play for the team this year, per ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler<\/a>. Trading draft capital for Lazard would be another indication of Pittsburgh\u2019s confidence that Rodgers will put pen to paper eventually.<\/p>\n

Moving on from Lazard likely wouldn\u2019t be an issue for the Jets after Rodgers\u2019 departure this offseason.\u00a0Their new regime signed two veterans with similar skillsets in Josh Reynolds<\/a> and Tyler Johnson<\/a>, per ESPN\u2019s Rich Cimini<\/a>, which could make Lazard surplus to requirements.<\/p>\n

Lazard\u2019s acceptance of a $7.5MM pay cut<\/a> earlier this offseason makes his contract far more attractive in a trade. His 2025 salary is now just $2.25MM with $1.75MM fully-guaranteed and another $250k available in per-game roster bonuses, per OverTheCap<\/a>. That\u2019s more money than the Steelers saved by trading Pickens; while they still need to budget for Rodgers, they can still certainly afford to add Lazard to their ledger.<\/p>\n

The Jets, meanwhile, will have to account for $6.55MM in dead money if they trade Lazard. A pre-June 1 trade would put it all on the books in 2025 and cost them an extra $1.9MM against the salary cap, while a post-June 1 trade would push $4.37MM to 2026 with $2.43MM of overall cap savings this year.<\/p>\n

Lazard\u2019s connection to Rodgers will no doubt interest the Steelers, especially if one acquisition would beget the other. However, they are still counting on a jump from 2024 third-rounder Roman Wilson<\/a> after his disappointing rookie season, per Fowler. Injuries limited Wilson to just one appearance with five snaps and zero targets in 2024. A healthy offseason could give him a better chance at capitalizing on his impressive physical profile, especially if he\u2019s catching passes from Rodgers instead of Mason Rudolph<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh now has three 2026 third-rounders they could use to add WR depth, as noted by Fowler, though it\u2019s hard to imagine Lazard fetching more than a Day 3 pick. He might be a cheaper alternative to some of their other targets, which may be the team\u2019s preference after their substantial investment in D.K. Metcalf<\/a>. Using a late-round pick to acquire Lazard would leave the Steelers enough premium draft picks in 2026 to add another receiver on Day 2 or even move up in the first round for a quarterback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After trading George Pickens to the Cowboys, the Steelers could be in the market to add depth at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2051],"tags":[2317,7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,57,4112],"class_list":{"0":"post-32104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-allen-lazard","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","17":"tag-roman-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114468862631586367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}