In a recent interview with a Cleveland radio station, NFL Network‘s Aditi Kinkhabwala reported that Odell Beckham has added the Pittsburgh Steelers as another one of the teams to “come and get him”. The knee-jerk reaction would be to get very excited over the possibility of adding this kind of offensive weapon to the Steelers struggling offense. He has just the type of big play capabilities this team so badly needs. If that was it, if Odell Beckham was just a dynamic player who somehow ended up on the trading block, then sure there would be plenty of interest from the Steelers. Unfortunately when it comes to acquiring this player, there is so much more.
The list of reasons why the Steelers should not, and will not make this move are almost too much to mention. Starting with the obvious, Beckham’s $14.5 million salary would be next to impossible for the team to fit into their 2020 salary cap. Kevin Colbert already faces some tough decisions on how he can resign key contributors like Bud Dupree and Javon Hargrave. With roughly four million left to spend, there is simply no way the team can add another high priced player onto this roster next season.
Salary cap aside, Odell Beckham is exactly the type of player the Steelers are trying to distance themselves from. His situation in Cleveland is becoming a little too reminiscent of the Antonio Brown ordeal of last season. Unlike Brown, Beckham has had issues from day one of him entering the NFL. From the dog peeing touchdown celebration, to the boat incident before the playoff game, OBJ is a handful to say the least. No one in the Steelers organization wants to go down that road again after all that happened off the field in 2018.
The window for the Pittsburgh Steelers to win a Super Bowl with Ben Roethlisberger is closing rapidly. In theory, acquiring an offensive weapon of this caliber to offset the losses of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell makes all the sense in the world. In reality however, it doesn’t work on multiple levels. The Steelers do not have the cap space, or the stomach to acquire a player like Odell Beckham. Pittsburgh may be on OBJ’s list, but he is almost certainly not on theirs.