Just days after the Pittsburgh Steelers thrashed the Indianapolis Colts, the top seed in the AFC made one of the biggest trade deadline deals in NFL history. They sent two first-round picks and wide receiver A.D. Mitchell to the New York Jets in exchange for All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Obviously, the Colts are looking to capitalize on an incredible, if not largely unexpected, start to the season. Their loss to Pittsburgh was by far the worst they’ve looked offensively, but still, they wanted to get some extra help on an already impressive defense.
The irony, given the timing of the move, is that Pittsburgh was the team that gave the Colts the message that they needed to upgrade their cornerback room, but not nearly in the way fans would expect.
Pittsburgh Steelers turned a dominant win into the spark for one of the wildest trades ever
On Sunday, the Colts held the Steelers’ top wideout, DK Metcalf, to just two catches on four targets for six yards. It was his worst performance of the season despite the Colts missing their top outside corner, Charvarius Ward, in the lineup.
Still, it’s nice for Metcalf and the Steelers that the Colts game didn’t fall after the trade deadline on the schedule. Metcalf had just one catch for 11 yards when Gardner covered him in Week 1, and that pass was deflected three or four times before it fell into Metcalf’s hands.
At the same time, if Pittsburgh capitalizes on its performance against the Colts and surges into the playoffs, Indianapolis is going to look a lot different in a potential round 2 matchup in the postseason. And that compounds with Ward’s eventual return. Indianapolis will have a formidable secondary with Gardner, Ward, and slot corner Kenny Moore in the defensive backfield.
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Still, it was Indianapolis’s defense that gave up the 27 points last Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. While the Colts might not routinely turn the ball over, extra security on their defense makes them a much more complete team when the postseason rolls around. Should they run into a team like Pittsburgh capable of forcing turnovers in bunches, a guy like Gardner on their defense can provide the insurance against a similar result to what they experienced in Week 9.
So, while it might not have been Pittsburgh’s electric passing game that forced Indianapolis to make such a bold move at the trade deadline, fans and teams around the league might look back on the Steelers’ dominant win in Week 9 as the moment one of the most unsuspecting contenders in the league made sure they could stay on top of the AFC.