The Steelers have acquired wide receiver Mike Williams from the Jets, the team announced Tuesday afternoon. Pittsburgh is parting with a 2025 fifth-round pick to make Williams a Steeler.
From a financial perspective, the Steelers will owe $627,500 in salary to Williams and he will become a free agent at the end of this season. According to OverTheCap.com, the Steelers had $10.2 million in cap space prior to the trade.
Williams, 30, has caught 12 passes for 166 yards and no touchdowns with the Jets this season. The former seventh overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft had his most productive seasons with the Chargers. In 2019, he caught 49 passes for 1,001 yards and two touchdowns, leading the NFL with 20.4 yards per reception. Over 97 games in his career, he's caught 321 passes for 4,972 yards and 31 touchdowns.
This ends a long, long search for a wide receiver that began once Omar Khan traded Diontae Johnson to the Panthers back in March. The Steelers were heavily involved in a pursuit of 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, a deal that nearly came together until Aiyuk opted to sign an extension at the last minute.
The Steelers were also very involved in a pursuit of Davante Adams, who wound up going to the Jets to be reunited with former Packers teammate Aaron Rodgers. When the Jets acquired Adams, they immediately made Williams available for trade. That's when initial discussions between the Steelers and Jets began and the trade came together a couple of weeks later, just a few hours before Tuesday's 4 p.m. deadline.
TRADE ANALYSIS
First, let's look at the pros. At 6-4 and 218 pounds, Williams has long been a big-body receiver who excels at making contested catches. According to Pro Football Focus, Williams ranks second in the NFL in both receptions and receiving yards on contested targets. That's counting two very productive seasons in 2019 and 2021, but still worth noting.
That gives this offense two receivers who can line up on the outside and be big targets for Russell Wilson and his patented moon ball. That could force teams to run more two-high looks against the Steelers' offense, which in turn helps the running game and might even open things up for the rest of the weapons in the passing game, especially Pat Freiermuth and Calvin Austin III. Two-high safeties is considered middle-field open coverage, which is what the Chargers run. Remember what Austin did to the middle of the Chargers' defense? Williams' presence might have an impact there.
The cons: Williams just turned 30 years old earlier this season. He’s coming off a major knee injury and he seems to lack the quickness and explosion he used to have prior to the injury. The odds of him recapturing his old form, especially anything to what he was during his best years, are not great.
This isn’t the splashy move fans wanted. Nobody should be reacting to it as such. This was parting with a fifth-round pick for a receiver on the wrong side of 30 coming off a major injury. There’s no need to overthink this trade. However, it also doesn’t mean this was a catastrophe, either.
From what I gather here, the hope from the Steelers’ perspective is Williams regains his prior form, probably what he did in 2023 when he caught 19 passes for 249 yards and a touchdown in three games, before a torn ACL ended his season.
Williams didn’t get a chance to go through OTAs, minicamp, training camp or the preseason the way he normally would. A slow start was to be expected. As the season goes on, the better chance he has of regaining some of that form.
There are some NFL Next Gen Stats that could provide some optimism here. Williams has a +3.0% catch rate over expected, a +5.9 receiving EPA (expected points added) and 2.0 average yards of separation per target.
Still, temper your expectations. The receiver room is better than it was before, but Williams still has to prove that he can be anything close to what he was prior to his injury. If he does, this could be a steal for the Steelers down the stretch. If not, he's an unrestricted free agent at season's end and cost a fifth-round pick.
• This wasn't the only trade made today. The Steelers also acquired veteran edge defender Preston Smith from the Packers. I have more on that in our Steelers feed.
