On a day dominated by NFL free agency news, there were several trades that went down around the league as well. Arguably, the biggest player swap was the Michael Pittman Jr. trade, which sent the veteran Indianapolis Colts wide receiver to the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the exact details for Pittsburgh sent to Indy aren't available at the time of publishing, it's being reported that it is a late-round pick swap in the 2026 NFL Draft. So, let's look at how each team did in this deal with our Michael Pittman Jr. trade grades.
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers officially entered a new era when Mike Tomlin stepped down this offseason. This is now Mike McCarthy's team, and his first move was a big one. The trade itself was a low-risk, high-reward move, giving up a later-round selection where the team almost certainly would not find a player as good as Pittman.
However, the Steelers are more committed than just a pick swap, as the team gave the former USC Trojan a three-year, $59 million contract extension. That is definitely a financial outlay for the team, but right around $20 million for a high-end WR isn't bad at all these days, and like most NFL deals, this is likely, in reality, a one-to-two-year commitment at worst.
Pittman will turn 29 midway through the 2026 NFL season, and he's been a productive pass-catcher despite playing almost exclusively with bad or over-the-hill quarterbacks in Indy. He's recorded two 1,000-plus-yard seasons and two with 800 or more receiving yards. He's also an excellent red zone threat with 25 career touchdowns.
Now that Pittman and DK Metcalf are paired on the Steelers, they represent the best one-two Pittsburgh WR punch since at least Antonio Brown and Juju Smith-Schuster, and probably Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes. Pittman was often cast as a WR1 in Indianapolis but is better suited as a good team's WR2, which makes this matchup well-suited for both the team and the player.
McCarthy is the Steelers' first offensive-side head coach since Bill Austin in 1968, and trading for Pittman signals the franchise is changing its path for the first time in decades. Moving to a more offense-first approach is a welcome pivot for the Steelers, and this deal is a perfect way to kick that off.
Grade: A
Indianapolis Colts
It's hard to tell exactly what the Colts are doing at this point. The Michael Pittman Jr. trade freed up $24 million in salary cap space, and they used that space to re-sign WR Alex Pierce to a four-year, $126 million deal worth $29 million per season. They now have one good wide receiver, and Daniel Jones is the quarterback. They don't have a first-round pick this season because of the Sauce Gardner trade, and they are now basically running back last year's squad with a healthy (for now) Jones and one WR instead of two.
Maybe the team felt like they had to make this move to keep Pierce, but it seems like the smartest thing to do was to redo Pittman's deal to help keep Pierce and move forward with two capable WRs. And even if they did have to move on from Pittman, it would have been nice to get something closer to a second-round pick, as the Chicago Bears got from the Buffalo Bills for D.J. Moore. That said, if this deal does look closer to that than anticipated, this Michael Pittman Jr. trade grade would rise dramatically.
For now, though, this is a middling move by a franchise that seems stuck in the middle for the foreseeable future.
Grade: C
