Omar Khan's big miss for Steelers

The wide receiver position was an obvious worry at the start of the year and it is even more glaring now.

Generally speaking, and from a big picture perspective, I have few complaints with the job Omar Khan and Andy Weidl have done in their first two years running the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The individual moves have mostly been strong.

The team won 10 games and made the playoffs a year ago with what was objectively one of the worst quarterback situations in the NFL. That is a testament to how good the rest of the roster was and, yes, how good the coaching was. Teams that get the level of quarterback play that team did do not generally make the playoffs. Or win many games.

Realizing the quarterback situation was not even close to good enough, they completely overhauled the position with three new faces (Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen) while also making big upgrades across the roster.

The quarterbacks have not been great, but they have been pretty good. They have also been significant upgrades across the board.

The free agency additions of Patrick Queen, DeShon Elliott and Donte Jackson added significant speed to an already good defense, while all three have been really good players. Queen has really come on after a slow start, while Elliott has arguably been one of the best under-the-radar signings across the league. Jackson came in with low expectations, but has been a mostly strong addition to the secondary and been a turnover creating machine.

The draft class took a big hit when first-round pick Troy Fautanu was lost for the season and third-round pick Roman Wilson kept getting hurt, but second-round pick Zach Frazier, third-round pick Payton Wilson and fifth-round pick Mason McCormick are all immediate starters. Good starters, as well. Even undrafted defensive back Beanie Bishop has made an instant impact at times.

There is a lot of good here.

It is a good team.

It is not 10-4, back in the playoffs and in a position to potentially win its division by accident.

Whether or not it is good enough to find success in the playoffs or seriously compete for a Super Bowl remains to be seen, but it is a good team.

The one thing that could — and probably will — hold them back in the short-term, and perhaps even into the playoffs, is the lack of depth at the wide receiver position after George Pickens.

This is a problem. It has been a problem. It is an even bigger problem than it was at the beginning of the season.

As soon as the Steelers traded Diontae Johnson to the Carolina Panthers for Donte Jackson it was clear they were going to need a new No. 2. Wilson was an intriguing draft pick, but it was asking a lot for a third-round pick to immediately step into the lineup and take on that sort of role.

They tried hard to trade for San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, but were unable to complete it.

The problem was not necessarily missing out on Aiyuk. It was putting all of their eggs into that basket and not having a realistic or attainable Plan B for when that did not happen.

The Steelers are paying the price for that now with Pickens dealing with a hamstring injury.

Pickens has his flaws as a player, and he can be immensely frustrating, but he is also the one option in the offense that is capable of actually making a big play. Without him on the field the past two weeks — and when he has not been on the field even when he is in the lineup — the offense has taken a huge step backwards. I know they scored 27 points against Cleveland without him, but that was not an overly impressive 27 points, and then the offense was completely non-existent in Philadelphia.

Calvin Austin has made some plays. Van Jefferson has been better with Wilson as the quarterback. Mike Williams is …. I guess fine for a guy that was acquired in-season for a fifth-round pick. But none of those guys are a No. 1 option that the offense can run through if needed, or even a No. 2 option for when Pickens is on the field.

I have no objection to the Steelers trading Johnson, and the way Johnson’s 2024 season has gone has probably only validated the Steelers’ decision to move him, but they needed something else coming in to replace him. Not only to help take some of the pressure off of Pickens when he is in the lineup, but to also have another legitimate option in the event he is out of the lineup.

It not only limits the passing game, it makes the Steelers’ far too one-dimensional and easier for teams to load up on and stop what the Steelers want to do — which is running the football.

He is not as indispensable as, say, T.J. Watt to the Steelers’ success, but he is probably on the short list of players they have no suitable replacement for when he is off the field. That is a problem.

If Pickens gets back on the field relatively quickly, there is no reason why the Steelers can not win a few of these remaining regular season games and make some noise in the playoffs. If he remains out, and is not 100 percent come playoff time, it is hard to imagine the offense having enough scoring punch.

As strong as Khan and Weidl have been, putting the offense into a situation where it is dependent on one dynamic — even if incredibly frustrating at times — wide receiver is a big miss they will have to own. They will also have to fix it.