Who do the Steelers target if they trade up to the 9th selection in the NFL Draft?

What do the Steelers trade to obtain the 9th pick?

Trading up in the draft will always be costly in some way. Either players get dealt, or valuable draft capital is expended. In the Steelers case, It appears no players would be involved in a potential trade. So unless the Steelers have someone in mind they feel is expendable, it means the Steelers will only be swapping draft picks despite a plethora of online suggestions of players that should be traded by pundits. So then, what do the Steelers give the Bears if this trade happens?

The Steelers are in a good position here; they would only be trading up eight spots, and the Bears, depending on who they are targeting, would only fall back to 17; thus, several of the players on their draft board should still be available. As it stands, the Steelers would swap their 17th pick for the 9th. From there, they would more than likely give up one of their 2nd round picks. The speculations suggest they would try to keep the 32nd pick and trade away the 49th pick.

The notion is plausible in that the Bears have 10 picks in 2023, thanks in large part to them trading away their first pick to Carolina. Hence they would have 4 2nd round selections in addition to their first-round pick, and there is little reason to suspect the Steelers would have to give them more than that. If they do, it might also be a 2024 pick, probably a 5th, 6th, or 7th.

It seems unlikely the Bears would ask for more; then again, no trade has been made official. Perhaps they are waiting for the draft to get a bit closer. The other possibility is the Bears want pick 32 back. Which then begs the question, do the Steelers want to give up pick 32 to get the 9th pick? For now, we will have to wait.