{"id":849799,"date":"2026-04-02T18:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/849799\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:43:19","slug":"colts-gm-reveals-why-michael-pittman-was-traded-to-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/849799\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts GM Reveals Why Michael Pittman Was Traded to Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghTravis Register-Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At the NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix, Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard opened up on why he traded wide receiver Michael Pittman<\/a> Jr. to the Pittsburgh Steelers. It wasn\u2019t an easy decision for Ballard. <\/p>\n

\u201cI get close with our players\u2026 sitting in the background and making decisions without having a relationship, I can\u2019t do that. I just can\u2019t, it\u2019s not who I am [or] how I grew up in this profession,\u201d Ballard said to Kay Adams of Up & Adams. \u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got people you care about and you have great respect for [but] you\u2019ve got to make decisions that absolutely freaking suck. That\u2019s one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballard was honest and up front with Pittman throughout the trade process. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy relationship with [Pittman] I would tell you is about as honest a GM-player relationship as you can have back and forth,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cLike we had some interesting talks through the years. So it was hard but he understood, he was a pro about it. He didn\u2019t like it, but he understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his introductory press conference with the Steelers, Pittman said he was very excited to learn that Pittsburgh was a possibility in trade talks, especially after talking to Mike McCarthy<\/a> about the way he\u2019d fit into the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really making a push to try to get here,\u201d Pittman said. <\/p>\n

Pittman believe he fits the mentality the Steelers want. He\u2019s willing to do whatever it takes to contribute to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got me fired up. I feel like Pittsburgh is my style of football. That tough, smashmouth, gritty, I think I just fit in perfectly here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Steelers certainly got Pittman at a steal, executing a late-round pick swap with the Colts. Now they can only hope he lives up to expectations.<\/p>\n

Pittman, 28,\u00a0is coming off a career-high seven-touchdown season to go along with 80 catches for 784 yards. Since being selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, he has recorded 485 catches for 5,254 yards and 25 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Steelers general manager Omar Khan<\/a> revealed why Pittman was their guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did our due diligence on him, knowing him since he came out of college,\u201d Khan said<\/a> at the NFL Owners Meetings in an interview with Max Starks. \u201cThe opportunity was there, had been in communication with the Colts, their front office, and it sort of came together pretty quickly. Made sense for them. Made sense for us, and we\u2019re excited to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy<\/a> raved about Pittman during his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show at the NFL Owners Meetings on Monday. He thinks Pittman is a perfect fit in his offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s perfect, he\u2019s the way I love to play. Bigger target, can play all three spots, you know, he can play the X, Z, and the F. You know, move him around,\u201d McCarthy explained. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way we like to play football. We like to play concept football and keep moving our guys around to try to create matchups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Chris Ballard<\/a> Indianapolis Colts<\/a> Michael Pittman<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Travis Register-Imagn Images At the NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix, Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[5422,2005,7,2004,392,2381,4983,6,57,426,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-849799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-chris-ballard","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-michael-pittman","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","17":"tag-steelers","18":"tag-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116336591940388408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849799","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=849799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}