{"id":821132,"date":"2026-03-19T12:54:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821132\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:54:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:54:43","slug":"is-this-real-roethlisberger-reacts-to-gigantic-pittman-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821132\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Is This Real?’: Roethlisberger Reacts To ‘Gigantic’ Pittman Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers used to churn out talented wide receivers, drafting and developing well. However, that hasn\u2019t been the case in recent years. The Steelers have taken swings on receivers, but they\u2019ve struggled to put together a decent pass-catcher group. They didn\u2019t wait long to upgrade at the position this<\/a> offseason, though. They traded for Michael Pittman Jr., swapping late-round picks with the Indianapolis Colts to acquire him. Ben Roethlisberger thinks that was an excellent deal for Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some really interesting additions, and when I say interesting, I mean good interesting,\u201d Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his Footbahlin\u2019 podcast.<\/a> \u201cTo me, it starts with the wide receiver, Michael Pittman [Jr.],\u201d When I saw that, I was like, \u2018Is this real?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did Indy let him go? That is gigantic. DK [Metcalf], him, and you still have Roman Wilson, we believe he\u2019s a really good talent, someone they need to infuse more in there\u2026 That\u2019s a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colts didn\u2019t get rid of Pittman because he\u2019s a bad player.<\/a> While he had a down 2025 season, the issue with him was money. The Colts gave wide receiver Alec Pierce a massive deal to keep him on their team. As a result, it was hard for them to justify keeping Pittman, who was also on a big deal.<\/p>\n

They were likely going to get rid of him no matter what, which is why they took the Steelers\u2019 deal, even though it wasn\u2019t much in return. Their loss was Pittsburgh\u2019s gain, though.<\/p>\n

Pittman will turn 29 this season, so he doesn\u2019t bring a lot of youth to the Steelers\u2019 receiver corps. However, they needed a reliable secondary option next to Metcalf, and Pittman should fit that role like a glove. He\u2019s played in at least 13 games in every year of his career, and he\u2019s had at least 800 receiving yards in four of his six seasons.<\/p>\n

Pittman and Metcalf should complement each other well. It\u2019s unclear if Wilson will emerge as the Steelers\u2019 No. 3 receiver because he hasn\u2019t done much in his young career. However, the Pittman acquisition should at least take some pressure off him. Perhaps that will help him flourish.<\/p>\n

The Steelers shouldn\u2019t continue relying on trades to fill out their receiver room. They\u2019ve got a lot of draft capital, so they could add another young pass catcher. However, the deal for Pittman was favorable for them, and it gives them an instant upgrade. We\u2019ll have to wait to see him actually play for the Steelers before we judge the trade, but right now it looks like good business<\/a> for Pittsburgh.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers used to churn out talented wide receivers, drafting and developing well. However, that hasn\u2019t been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6594,6595,7,11808,6,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-821132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ben-roethlisberger","9":"tag-footbahlin-with-ben-roethlisberger","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-michael-pittman-jr","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116255946410197850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821132","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=821132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}