Pittsburgh Steelers GM Omar Khan didn\u2019t sugarcoat things last week at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine when asked about the performance at the wide receiver position in 2025.<\/p>\n
Outside of DK Metcalf \u2014 who was a bit of a disappointment in his own right \u2014 the Steelers got very little out of their wide receiver room in 2025. Late in the year, the Steelers relied on Adam Thielen and Marquez Valdes-Scantling to give them a boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we were good enough, overall,\u201d Khan told reporters<\/a>, including our own Ross McCorkle and Joe Clark, at the Combine. \u00a0\u201cWe didn\u2019t win a single playoff game. That\u2019s not good enough. So we have to be better at every position.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, with the start of free agency under two weeks away, the Steelers are back in a familiar position: needing to address the receiver room<\/a> in a major way, this time under first-year head coach Mike McCarthy.<\/p>\n Fortunately for the Steelers, there are plenty of big-name wide receivers set to hit the open market, led by the likes of Mike Evans, Alec Pierce, Romeo Doubs, Wan\u2019Dale Robinson, and Rashid Shaheed.<\/p>\n The Steelers could just wait and address the position via the 2026 NFL Draft, which offers a deep, talented wide receiver crop. But if they address the position in free agency first, they\u2019ll find themselves up against stiff competition.<\/p>\n According to ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler, the Buffalo Bills are the team to watch at receiver in free agency.<\/p>\n \u201cRival teams expect Buffalo to strongly address wide receiver in the coming weeks,\u201d Fowler writes.<\/a> \u201cAnd multiple league executives are linking Rashid Shaheed or Romeo Doubs to the Bills. Alec Pierce will most likely be out of their price range.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaheed and Doubs both make sense for the Bills, who need to find a leading receiver for star quarterback Josh Allen. Keon Coleman has been a borderline bust, and Khalil Shakir is a very good player but more of a No. 2 than anything.<\/p>\n It\u2019s rather fitting that a team the Steelers haven\u2019t been able to solve in recent years in the Bills just so happens to be a team they\u2019ll find themselves negotiating against on the open market at a position of need.<\/p>\n When it comes to wide receivers like Doubs and Shaheed, the Steelers have been connected to them in the past. Doubs is a player quarterback Aaron Rodgers reportedly inquired about<\/a> last summer and has been connected to the Steelers since the season ended, while Pittsburgh showed interest in Shaheed at the trade deadline before he landed with Seattle.<\/p>\n The Bills might not be the only competition for Shaheed, either, according to Fowler.<\/p>\n \u201cSome around the league are linking Shaheed to the Raiders,\u201d Fowler writes. \u201cThe feeling is that Las Vegas likes him a lot, though it will be selective at the position if the money gets too out of hand.\u201d<\/p>\n