There's no question the Pittsburgh Steelers got more explosive on offense after trading for DK Metcalf. The former first-round pick is a perennial 1,000-yard receiver who can win consistently down the field as a matchup nightmare, thanks to his speed-size combination. But if we're being honest, the outlook for the 2025 season is still discouraging.
Right now, the only quarterbacks on the Steelers' roster are Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson. If Aaron Rodgers does not sign with Pittsburgh, there's even talk of the front office bringing in a veteran like Joe Flacco (talk about a boring QB room).
The Steelers gave Metcalf a five-year, $150 million contract when they traded for him, and based on the contract structure, he's going to be here for a minimum of three years with the potential to be a starting receiver for this team all the way through the 2029 season.
But we know Art Rooney II and Mike Tomlin want to win now, so the team made a questionable choice with Metcalf's contract.
The Pittsburgh Steelers made a poor decision with DK Metcalf's contract structure
If the Pittsburgh Steelers had any sense of self-awareness, they'd understand that this needs to be a rebuilding (or at least a retooling) season. This team doesn't have a quarterback, and even if 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers decides to pause his long walks on the beach to play for Pittsburgh in 2025, the Steelers are unlikely to be a true contender in the AFC this year.
Knowing this, the Steelers would have been wise to take on a bulk of Metcalf's salary upfront. Instead, like this front office so frequently does, Pittsburgh elected to give Metcalf just a $5 million base salary in 2025 with a $6 million prorated signing bonus. This means his cap number is merely $11 million for the 2025 season, per Over the Cap—which is just 3.9 percent of Pittsburgh's total salary cap.
So what's wrong with this?
By willingly structuring Metcalf's contract to take a low cap number this year, the Steelers once again pushed their problems into the future by kicking the can down the road. In 2026, Metcalf's base salary jumps up to $25 million with a cap number of $31 million. It continues to escalate each year from there until the final year of his deal when he will have a lofty cap number of $41.5 million.
It's true that the salary cap goes up each year, and by the time Metcalf nears the final years of his deal, there's a chance this could look like a reasonable number. But that's not the point. The Steelers once again took a short-sighted approach.
Because they are so desperate to win now, they kept Metcalf's costs against the cap low. What they should have done is absorbed a bulk of the cap hit early so that the star receiver would have had a much smaller cap number in 2026 and beyond—when the Steelers could actually be in contention to compete for a championship again.
When it's all said and done, these are minor details. But like I always say: it's all about capitalizing on windows. The Pittsburgh Steelers are not in a championship window to win now, as much as they'd like to believe they are.