Steelers Discussed Brian Thomas Jr. With Jaguars; Teams Interested In TE Pat Freiermuth
A frequent shopper for wide receiver help in 2024, the Steelers found their new lead option by trading for D.K. Metcalf last March. But the team soon dealt George Pickens, who played well enough to command a Cowboys franchise tag last week. Pittsburgh is still searching for receiving help.
Before last year’s deadline, the Steelers were one of the teams to call the Jaguars on Brian Thomas Jr., per The Pat McAfee Show’s Mark Kaboly. Talks fell through, and the Jags held onto the 2024 first-round pick amid his sophomore slump. With the Jags extending Jakobi Meyers, Thomas — a Trent Baalke draftee — could still be available. But with Jacksonville set to use Travis Hunter more as a cornerback in 2026, the team would create a big need of its own by moving Thomas — in what would amount to a sell-low transaction.
After a breakthrough rookie season, the LSU product caught just 48 passes for 707 yards in 2025. His touchdown total plummeted from 10 to two, as Meyers became a more important part of the Jags’ attack following his deadline arrival. Two years remain on Thomas’ rookie contract.
The Steelers have Calvin Austin, Scott Miller and Marquez Valdes-Scantling unsigned. The team agreed not to void Metcalf’s 2026 guarantees, an option available after the mercurial wideout’s two-game suspension, but will be hunting for complementary help. Roman Wilson has not taken off, stalling the Steelers’ run of finding wideout gems on Day 2. The Steelers figure to be in the market for free agency help and will be a team to monitor in the draft. Pittsburgh has not drafted a first-round wideout since Santonio Holmes 20 years ago but has added numerous receiving options in Rounds 2-3 since.
Elsewhere within the Steelers’ skill-position cadre, Kenneth Gainwell is likely to see a raise soon. The former Eagles backup played the 2025 season on a one-year, $1.79MM pact and earned team MVP honors, totaling 1,023 scrimmage yards and eight touchdowns. The Steelers want to re-sign Gainwell, with GM Omar Khan indicating (via ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor) talks with the running back’s camp have commenced.
While the Steelers are interested in a second Gainwell contract, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac indicates they are unlikely to reward him with a deal that exceeds Jaylen Warren‘s 2025 extension (two years, $11.9MM).
Pittsburgh used a third-round pick on Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson but effectively gave him a redshirt year behind Warren and Gainwell. Even with Breece Hall off the market, the RB position is fairly deep — to the point Pittsburgh could conceivably bring back Gainwell at a reasonable rate. But it is also quite possible Johnson moves up on the depth chart after Gainwell defects next week.
At tight end, the Steelers are likely interested in extending Darnell Washington. The supersized pass catcher has one season remaining on his rookie contract, and Khan (via Kaboly) pointed to interest on the team’s part. The Steelers rolled out an interesting three-TE look last season, acquiring Jonnu Smith after having extended Pat Freiermuth in 2024. Freiermuth saw his usage and production decline in 2025, being given only eight starts and catching 41 passes for 486 yards — after twice eclipsing 650 in previous years.
Smith’s 2025 extension runs for one more season, and while at least six teams have expressed interest in Freiermuth (according to The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo), the Steelers are informing suitors he is unavailable. Freiermuth’s four-year, $48.1MM extension runs through 2028. Smith, 30, is not as certain to be part of Mike McCarthy‘s attack, per DeFabo. The team is evaluating how the nomadic pass catcher would be utilized alongside Freiermuth and Washington in 2026. Smith is due a $7MM base salary this season.
Isaac Seumalo joins Gainwell as a free agent-to-be. If the Steelers do not re-sign the 10-year veteran, Dulac adds they will pursue a replacement in free agency. Every other Steelers O-line starter is on a rookie contract. Seumalo, 32, figures to do fairly well on the market despite his advanced age. The two-time Super Bowl starter ranked in the top five in both pass and run block win rate last season.
The Steelers appear likelier to let Seumalo walk, Kaboly adds, with Khan indicating the team is “excited” about Spencer Anderson early in his career. A 2023 seventh-round pick, Anderson has made 11 career starts. Anderson played 193 snaps at left guard last season, also being used as a sixth O-linemen in certain packages.
Steelers G Isaac Seumalo Not Ready To Return
The Steelers are off to a hot, 3-0 start this year, but that hasn’t come without its speedbumps. The team has missed the play of guard Isaac Seumalo as he works his way back from an August pectoral injury. Unfortunately, they’ll have to wait at least another week to see him back on the field as the Steelers announced today that Seamalo has officially been designated as out for the team’s trip to Indianapolis. 
In his first year with the Steelers last season, Seumalo graded out as the team’s top offensive lineman, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), shifting back to left guard after a year in Philadelphia at right guard. Seumalo may have been facing a position change upon his second year with the team, but as their best returning lineman, his absence was going to be crucial, regardless.
The other returning guard on the line this year was James Daniels, who started all but two games in his second year with the team last year. While Daniels was a consistent starter, he did little to impress in 2023. This thought, and an early offseason depth chart, led to speculation that South Dakota State fourth-round rookie Mason McCormick may be pushing for a starting job, assuming Seumalo was back. With McCormick only playing left guard in college, there was speculation that Seumalo could swing back over to right guard and push Daniels to the bench.
With Seumalo absent through Pittsburgh’s first three contests, though, Daniels has remained a starter and has, so far, thrived. Daniels is not only the team’s top offensive lineman through three weeks, according to PFF, he’s the team’s top-graded offensive player, period. In fact, he grades out as the top guard in the NFL and the second-best offensive lineman in the league.
McCormick, on the other hand, has not secured the starting position it was predicted he would. Instead, Spencer Anderson has been starting across from Daniels at left guard. Unfortunately, Anderson hasn’t seen the same success as Daniels, ranking as the second-worst offensive player on the team and the 61st-ranked guard in the NFL. It seems that Seumalo will retake his starting gig whenever he can return, but if he’s out for much longer, it might be worth it to take a look at the rookie, McCormick, in a starting role.
Steelers LG Isaac Seumalo To Miss Time
SEPTEMBER 3: When speaking to the media on Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed (via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor) Seumalo will miss the team’s season opener. He is week-to-week beyond that, however, so a return to the lineup could take place sooner than his initial timeline suggested.
SEPTEMBER 1: The Steelers will be without their top-rated offensive lineman from 2023 for a time. Starting left guard Isaac Seumalo sustained a pectoral injury in practice late last month, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter subsequently noted that the injury was not a season-ender – torn pecs often are, though Pittsburgh star edge rusher T.J. Watt was a notable exception to that rule in 2022 – but it was not immediately apparent how much time Seumalo would miss. Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network later reported that the 30-year-old blocker would be sidelined for four weeks.
Assuming that four-week timeline holds true, Seumalo would be forced to sit out the first three games of the season and would be ready to return for the Steelers’ Week 4 contest against the Colts. That explains why the team has not put him on injured reserve, which requires that a player miss at least four games.
In Seumalo’s absence, 2023 seventh-rounder Spencer Anderson and fourth-round rookie Mason McCormick will vie for the left guard gig, as Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted. Anderson, who appeared in just two offensive snaps in his rookie season, will get the first look, with McCormick hoping to overtake him on the depth chart. If McCormick should impress, it is at least within the realm of possibility that he will remain at LG when Seumalo returns, with Seumalo kicking over to RG (left guard is the only position McCormick played in college, while Seumalo has pro experience at right guard).
Seumalo, a third-round pick of the Eagles in 2016, signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the Steelers last March. The Oregon State product performed well in his first year in Pittsburgh, grading out as Pro Football Focus’ 12th-best guard out of 79 qualified players. He was charged with just one penalty in a full 17-game slate, and PFF’s evaluation showed that he yielded zero sacks (though he did give up 26 total pressures).
2023 marked the second straight year in which Seumalo enjoyed perfect attendance, which was a welcome change of pace after he played in just 12 total games across the 2020-21 seasons. While he will not play a full season in 2024, a healthy and productive return to the field would obviously bolster his chances of finishing out his Steelers contract and earning his $6.88MM salary and $1MM roster bonus in 2025 (no guaranteed money remains on his deal).
NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/12/23
Rookie minicamps started today and more rookies put the names on the dotted line of their four-year contracts. Here are the mid- to late-round picks who signed today:
Arizona Cardinals
- DT Dante Stills (sixth round, West Virginia)
Atlanta Falcons
- CB Clark Phillips III (fourth round, Utah)
- G Jovaughn Gwyn (seventh round, South Carolina)
Cleveland Browns
- DE Isaiah McGuire (fourth round, Missouri)
- QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson (fifth round, UCLA)
- CB Cameron Mitchell (fifth round, Northwestern)
- C Luke Wypler (sixth round, Ohio State)
Denver Broncos
- CB Riley Moss (third round, Iowa)
- S JL Skinner (sixth round, Boise State)
Houston Texans
- LB Henry To’oTo’o (fifth round, Alabama)
- S Brandon Hill (seventh round, Pittsburgh)
Kansas City Chiefs
- S Chamarri Conner (fourth round, Virginia Tech)
Los Angeles Chargers
- LB Daiyan Henley (third round, Washington State)
- WR Derius Davis (fourth round, TCU)
- T Jordan McFadden (fifth round, Clemson)
- DT Scott Matlock (sixth round, Boise State)
- QB Max Duggan (seventh round, TCU)
Minnesota Vikings
- CB Mekhi Blackmon (third round, USC)
- QB Jaren Hall (fifth round, BYU)
New England Patriots
- G Sidy Sow (fourth round, Eastern Michigan)
- CB Ameer Speed (sixth round, Michigan State)
- CB Isaiah Bolden (seventh round, Jackson State)
New Orleans Saints
- RB Kendre Miller (third round, TCU)
- T Nick Saldiveri (fourth round, Old Dominion)
- S Jordan Howden (fifth round, Minnesota)
- WR A.T. Perry (sixth round, Wake Forest)
Pittsburgh Steelers
- TE Darnell Washington (third round, Georgia)
- LB Nick Herbig (fourth round, Wisconsin)
- G Spencer Anderson (seventh round, Maryland)
Washington Commanders
- DE K.J. Henry (fifth round, Clemson)
- RB Christopher Rodriguez (sixth round, Kentucky)