2025 Team Previews: Pittsburgh Steelers
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Relevant Players
Relevant Players
DK Metcalf, WR (ADP: 47, WR21): Metcalf is a microcosm of how I feel about the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025. He has been a consistently strong WR for fantasy, but his limitations are such that it’s held him back from joining the elite upper crust of the position. Now he’s coming off a down season, changing teams, and he will be the unquestioned alpha in the passing game. The issue is his game seems ill-suited to being the clear-cut No. 1, and he feels like a square peg in a round hole. This entire team in 2025 feels like it has been desperately patched over, with an over the hill QB, a one-dimensional WR1, and a coach whose goodwill is fraying. The wheels appear ready to come off, and that could apply to Metcalf too.
He played in 15 games last season, falling below 1,000 yards for the first time since 2021. His five touchdowns were a career-low, his 108 targets were his lowest since his rookie year, and his reception total of 66 was the same as 2023, but with a lot more inefficiency. It was not a good year at all for D.K., especially down the stretch when he never caught more than five passes from Weeks 12-18. It was very clear he’d been passed in the hierarchy by Jaxon Smith-Njigba in Seattle, and there’s no shame in that. But what’s alarming is that his play just deteriorated. He’s always been a prototype X receiver who beasts vs. man coverage and is weak vs. zone. He dipped vs. man though, posting a 69.2% win rate. That’s not atrocious, but it’s just a 54th percentile mark, which isn’t good enough when you’re 10th percentile vs. zone. His Reception Perception write up also revealed a dirty little secret; he hasn’t been a consistent contested catch winner in a long time.
Metcalf is still a baller on slants (83.6%), digs (78.4%) and nines (62.7%) and those are all heavily run routes in Arthur Smith’s offense. If the Steelers are looking at him to be A.J. Brown, then he can do a good chunk of that and be effective. I don’t think Metcalf is versatile enough to be the total focal point of a healthy passing game, but fantasy wise he will be peppered with targets and he should be back to double-digit touchdowns. This ADP may end up being a value on volume alone, but I’ll simply say I am okay with drafting Metcalf here.
Kaleb Johnson, RB (ADP: 71, RB28): And with Metcalf’s blurb, we’re out of sure things in the Steelers offense. Johnson, a third round rookie RB, is the second-highest drafted Steeler this summer. Johnson film isn’t going to be for everyone, but I am a fan of his work. He was incredibly productive at Iowa, churning out 1,537 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns for the Hawkeyes and chipping in 22 receptions for 188 yards and two scores through the air. With Jaylen Warren on this team, receiving won’t be on Johnson’s plate. That does cap his ceiling some, but he does walk onto this team with a built in role left by Najee Harris.
Harris led the team in rushing attempts by a mile, carrying the ball 263 times to Warren’s 120. That gap should close a good deal in 2025, but Johnson is a strong bet to lead the team this season, and he proved he’s built for that kind of workload last season for Iowa. Johnson’s size is comparable to Harris’, and he has much more explosiveness in his game. Harris was underrated though for his ability to make people miss and provide a reliable safety valve to the QB as a receiver. Johnson is not a perfect replacement for Harris, but he does seem on track to absorb a lot of the early down work and goal line opportunities. Also, with a receiving corps this barren and a QB who needs to be preserved, the Steelers should be near the top of the rushing leaderboards.
**Jaylen Warren, RB (ADP: 81, RB31): I was all hype to tout Warren as a Leap to Elite player this offseason when Harris departed, and then they drafted Johnson. I think Warren is an awesome player, and someone who could really break out if given the chance. Even as it stands, Warren is very much a FLEX player in his current role with the second banana workload. In 2023 he played the full season and managed over 1,100 yards from scrimmage while drawing 61 targets. His passing game usage fell apart last season with Russell Wilson at the helm, but he’s gone and we saw Aaron Rodgers last year bombard Breece Hall with short passes.
Warren is one of the best receiving backs in football, and he’s an efficient gainer of yardage when he does get carries. He’s been at eight carries per game the last two seasons, and I can see that ticking up slightly. If he can get into the 11-12 carry per game area, and his passing game contributions level up with Rodgers under center, the talent is there for an Austin Ekeler-type season. I’m not predicting that, but it’s in the range of outcomes, making him a value at this ADP.
Jonnu Smith, TE (ADP: 120, TE14): I don’t want to say Smith’s 88-catch season was a complete aberration, because I have always thought he was talented and underused in Tennessee. But it is a far cry from anything he’d put forth in his previous seven seasons with the Titans, Patriots and Falcons, and his targets were borne of Miami spamming the shortest passes they can so their QB’s bell wouldn’t be rung again.
Smith’s ADP is going to be tempting because he costs very little, and the Steelers’ pass-catching corps beyond Metcalf is abysmal. The easy narrative will be “who else are they gonna throw to?” I understand that, and there may even be some truth to it, but there are TEs going in Smith’s range with much more upside that cost the same or are even cheaper. If your argument is that Smith offers consistency and a higher floor, my retort is that his previous career-high for receptions was 50 in 2023 with Atlanta, when he was also with Arthur Smith as his offensive coordinator. Beware of assuming he’s a high-floor safe player.
Interesting Sleeper(s)
Robert Woods, WR (ADP: N/A): It’s getting nasty now. Woods is right now an undrafted player, and I am seeing a real possibility that he’s their WR2 unless they go out and sign someone. Woods is in his age 33 season now, and we haven’t seen 1,000 yards from him since 2019. Woods hasn’t even gotten past 556 yards since 2021. But, if he’s got anything left in the tank, he could see enough volume to have an Adam Thielen-esque run for at least some of this season while the Steelers figure out if anyone else on the depth chart has juice. There are some younger players who can leapfrog Woods, but the Steelers are trying to win, so unless they’re ready to contribute, 2025 isn’t about developing players. That’s why I think Woods is going to be more involved than anyone realizes.
Notable Players
Aaron Rodgers, QB (ADP: 183, QB28): Rodgers is now fully viewed as the aging, underwhelming (for fantasy) QB he’s actually been for a few years now. I broke down his move to the Steelers here, and in it I wasn’t very bullish about this marriage. There’s no question that the coaching will be superior to the absolute mess the Jets were last season, but the offensive line is no lock to be better at protecting him, and the receiving corps is going to be substantially worse. Rodgers had Garrett Wilson last season, a far more well-rounded player than Metcalf as his WR1, and then added longtime partner Davante Adams in season who became the top target and made Wilson an overqualified WR2.
Here, it’s Metcalf and hopes and prayers. I just talked about how I think Robert Woods might have a big role, and his best recent season was 556 yards in 2021. That is disgusting stuff, and Rodgers is no longer at an age where he can just carry everyone. His stats last season are better than you’d realize; he put up 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns. The Jets also threw the fifth-most passes in the league, they were 25th in yards per play and eighth-worst in net yards per pass attempt. Rodgers has been a subpar option since 2022, his final season in Green Bay, and the pieces are just not in place to support one last hurrah.
Pat Freiermuth, TE (ADP: 200, TE26): Freiermuth is talented, and I would’ve been somewhat excited for his TD upside in this offense given the dearth of quality pass catchers, but with Jonnu Smith on the team I don’t see how he can get enough targets to be a season-long TE. He’s gone for 60+ catches in three of his four seasons, decent enough for the position, but his yardage has always been middling. If the touchdowns don’t show up, he’s going to give you a lot of duds that you can’t afford. Unfortunately, he’s not even a spot starter now that Smith is in the fold.
Calvin Austin III, WR (ADP: 267, WR82): Austin built on his rookie year in 2024, upping his production to 36 catches, 548 yards and four touchdowns while averaging 15.2 yards per catch. Austin is currently listed as the WR2 on this team, and he should be able to have his fair share of splash plays if he’s going to be on the field a ton. But at his size, there’s no way Austin can consistently be on the outside, and at this point in his career Rodgers’ deep ball is far from its peak. I can see Austin running lots of routes, but they’ll be low percentage stuff, and to get the goodies from him it’ll require a lot of awful stat lines. Not worth the trouble.
Roman Wilson, WR (ADP: 300, WR96): Wilson is the guy that most will probably buy into as the Steelers’ de facto WR2. Maybe he will be that, and maybe there’s just not really value in this passing game beyond Metcalf and possibly Jaylen Warren or Jonnu Smith. Projecting a fantasy relevant year for Wilson is based on almost nothing but hope. He had zero receiving stats as a rookie, and in his final year at Michigan he scored 12 touchdowns, but on 789 yards and 48 receptions. Michigan’s offensive environment was extremely run heavy, but still not encouraging.
Wilson, if he’s going to get big snaps, will probably have to be on the outside and his prospect profile was pretty ghastly for an outside option. He was in the 19th percentile (62.4%) vs. man, just 50% vs. press (11th percentile), and below average on slants and posts, while just about average on nine routes. The one thing he did do well was run dig routes, which he obliterated defenses on at a 93.3% clip. If he’s going to get a ton of reps then sure, it’s possible he gets enough targets to be relevant. I will not be betting on it.
Darnell Washington, TE (ADP: N/A): Washington is such a massive player that he interests me from a red zone/TD opportunity perspective. His stats are totally unnoteworthy, as he saw just 25 targets the entire season. But he did grade out as a Top 20 TE per PFF, largely due to his solid blocking grades. With Jonnu Smith here, it’s possible that Washington’s blocking prowess gets him on the field in two-TE sets over Freiermuth, and if he’s on the field a ton there’s Juwan Johnson potential for Washington. All of this is wildly speculative, and there’s no world where he should be drafted. But if he pops in Week 1 with a few end zone targets or even touchdowns, take note.
Handcuffs
Kenneth Gainwell, RB (ADP: 325, RB88): Gainwell lives to make backfield projections messy. I’m a big fan of both Kaleb Johnson and Jaylen Warren, and I don’t expect Gainwell to hurt either one, but pay attention as camp wears on to see if he’s making a push for real work. If so, downgrade both Johnson and Warren.