Departing Steelers free agent screws the team on his way out

The Pittsburgh Steelers have seen numerous starters depart in free agency this offseason, and their roster could feel the effects of some of these losses if the front office doesn't start patching their roster holes. But one player who will not be missed is Mike Williams.

In a fit of desperation, the Steelers traded for Williams just before the NFL trade deadline expired in 2024. Outside of one admittedly important catch against the Washington Commanders that gave Pittsburgh the lead late in the fourth quarter, Williams was non-existent on the football field last season.

His pedestrian performances made his new contract with the Chargers all the more confusing.

On March 12, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network originally reported that Williams agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal with the Los Angeles Chargers. This was a hefty price tag for a wide receiver who caught nine passes in as many games with the Steelers last year.

Because of his high initial reported salary, it appeared as if Pittsburgh was about to fetch a sixth-round compensatory pick for Williams' departure. Who would have ever thought that would have been the case?

Apparently, it's not.

Nick Korte of Over the Cap recently released the real salary cap figures for Williams, and his contract finally makes sense. Korte confirms that Williams has a base salary of just $1.5 million with a guaranteed salary of $1.5 million—giving him a total cap number of $3 million for the 2025 season.

Sadly, this free-agent loss won't be enough to garner another compensatory pick for the Steelers. But it's not as if they deserved one for losing Williams.

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn't deserve a compensatory pick for Mike Williams' departure in free agency

Just like he did when the Steelers traded for him, Mike Williams deceived fans on the way out. The initial reporting made it sound like Pittsburgh could have received a comp pick for Williams in the 2026 NFL Draft, but this won't be the case. But they never deserved to gain anything from Williams walking away.

Quite frankly, general manager Omar Khan and the Steelers don't deserve a thing from the way they handled the wide receiver position since last year. Khan missed out on every opportunity to land a wide receiver via trade until being forced to ship away a draft pick for a washed-up Williams at the last possible second.

The Steelers were about to be handed a gift simply for letting a bad veteran wide receiver walk away from the team on an expiring contract in free agency. Still, it's encouraging to see that they are on track to earn four comp picks in the 2026 draft thanks to the departures of Dan Moore Jr., Justin Fields, James Daniels, and Donte Jackson.

The Mike Williams experiment didn't work out, and the Pittsburgh Steelers need to take this as a learning lesson the time they consider opting for a short-sighted fix.