The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a glaring need at wide receiver for almost a full calendar year. It's no secret that they will be heavily involved in negotiations with any quality wideout on the open market, and some from potential trade talks. Even after they secure their guy in free agency, they could still draft another highly touted option in an attempt to do a complete 180 on the receiver room. They made a bad mistake last year, so Omar Khan should hopefully learn from it and fix that issue.
While making an appearance on 93.7 The Fan, insider Ray Fittipaldo was asked about realistic free agent options for the Steelers. He brought up one name that is not slated to hit the open market, but could end up being cut to save his current team some money.
"There was that report that Gerry Dulac had before the trade deadline that [Christian] Kirk would be their target if he didn't get hurt. Contractually, I think he might have to get cut first by the Jaguars before he becomes a free agent, but if the Steelers liked him in October, they're probably going to like him in March once the Jaguars make that call."
As Fittipaldo mentioned, Christian Kirk is still under contract for one more year with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has one more year left on his current deal, but that doesn't mean the team won't try to either cut him or trade him away to save some money and have more to play with in the offseason.
If the Jaguars were to either cut or trade Kirk away, they would save a little over $10 million in cap space, but they would still eat about $13.6 million in dead money due to the prorated signing bonus hit for 2025 and the two void years after that. If they designated him as a post-June 1st cut, however, they would save over $16 million and just eat that prorated cap hit each of the next few years, and the cap hit in those void years is small enough to make that a realistic option.
Kirk has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, but he is a lowkey game-changer when he is healthy. In his lone season where he started in every game (2022), he had over 1,100 receiving yards. The only question is if that constant barrage of pain hurts him as he enters his age 28/29 season.
Why Would The Steelers Be Interested In Someone Like Kirk?
The Steelers' receiving core is still very young. Even if Kirk ends up being the WR3, they could still use that veteran presence from a quality wideout. Unlike Van Jefferson, Kirk actually has put up plenty of quality performances as either the top receiver or the second option for a team. As long as he stays on the field, he should be a regular contributor.
On top of that, the Steelers were interested in trading for him at the deadline. After Khan lost out on numerous top receiver options, he turned towards Jacksonville in an attempt to get that starting-caliber receiver that they desperately needed. As Fittipaldo said, they should be interested in him now if they were back at the trade deadline. In fact, the Steelers and Jaguars were reportedly coming to an agreement to bring Kirk to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken collarbone that Sunday, which ended his season. Both sides were forced to call the trade off, and Kirk is now a cap casualty option. Khan might get his receiver without giving up assets.
