{"id":869473,"date":"2026-04-18T22:37:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869473\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:37:47","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-linked-to-polarizing-wr-in-risky-nfl-draft-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869473\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers Linked to Polarizing WR in Risky NFL Draft Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> definitely addressed their receiving corps earlier this offseason, swinging a trade with the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> to acquire Michael Pittman<\/a> Jr.<\/p>\n

Pittman should serve as a good No. 2 behind D.K. Metcalf, whom the Steelers acquired via trade last spring.<\/p>\n

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However, the depth behind Metcalf and Pittman is pitiful.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh lost Calvin Austin III<\/a> to free agency, and Roman Wilson<\/a> has provided next to nothing over his first couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Steelers are expected to select a wide receiver early in this year’s NFL Draft, and while they may not break their 20-year long streak of not taking a receiver in the first round, they seem almost certain to take one no later than Day 2.<\/p>\n

Chad Reuter of NFL.com<\/a> recently put together a seven-round mock draft, and he has Pittsburgh nabbing Georgia Bulldogs standout Zachariah Branch at No. 53.<\/p>\n

Branch is definitely one of the more polarizing weapons in this class.<\/p>\n

\"Zachariah<\/p>\n

Zachariah Branch. Credit:\u00a0Geoff Burke-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-9 burner certainly possesses potential as a vertical threat thanks to his dynamic speed (he ran a 4.35 in the 40-yard dash), and with Metcalf and Pittman on the outside, the Steelers could definitely use a slot receiver.<\/p>\n

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However, while Branch was definitely a high-volume contributor for Georgia in 2025, hauling in 81 receptions, we really didn’t see a whole lot of explosiveness.<\/p>\n

Branch accrued just 811 yards on those catches, good for a pedestrian average of just 10 yards per catch. He also isn’t the greatest route runner in the world, which is certainly a major red flag for a slot receiver.<\/p>\n

On the bright side, Branch had just two drops this past season, and he has upside as a special teams weapon. He has received comparisons to Zay Flowers<\/a> on the high end, but he also could end up being Mecole Hardman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For as deep as this wide receiver class is, I’m not so sure that using a mid second-round pick on Branch is the best idea. But I will say that Branch’s style does fit what the Steelers need.<\/p>\n

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Of course, if Pittsburgh takes a receiver in Round 1 on Thursday, this will all be moot.<\/p>\n

Steelers Roundtable also offers a fan community and message board. We\u2019d love to have you join us to talk all things Steelers. Click the \u201cJoin\u201d button at the top of the page to join our community for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers definitely addressed their receiving corps earlier this offseason, swinging a trade with the Indianapolis Colts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8741,12737,7,392,451,4983,6,15,57,4112,1473,33452,4648],"class_list":{"0":"post-869473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-calvin-austin-iii","9":"tag-d-k-metcalf","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-mecole-hardman","13":"tag-michael-pittman","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-draft","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","17":"tag-roman-wilson","18":"tag-wide-receiver","19":"tag-zachariah-branch","20":"tag-zay-flowers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116428113555568253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869473","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=869473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}