20 March 2023 , 15:39
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The Pittsburgh Steelers have been urged to sign Odell Beckham Jr. in order to compete with the offensive firepower possessed by the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals.
The Steelers finished third in the AFC North with a 9-8 record in 2022, with the Baltimore Ravens (10-7) and Bengals (12-4) both clinching playoff berths. It was the first season of Pittsburgh’s post-Ben Roethlisberger era, with head coach Mike Tomlin introducing rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett to the NFL.
Pickett showed flashes of his exciting potential but will likely need weapons around him for the offence to fire. The Steelers are able to add firepower as the 24-year-old is on a rookie contract - so the franchise are surely considering a move for Beckham, the hottest name in the receiver market.
The Steelers appeared to not be in the running for the former New York Giants star, who is looking to return to action after missing an entire year following ACL surgery. Beckham - who suffered his injury while winning Super Bowl LVI with the Los Angeles Rams - hosted a workout in Arizona recently, with 12 teams attending including the Giants, Rams, Chiefs, Ravens, New York Jets, New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns.
The workout was reportedly a major success - and ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky believes the Steelers should move for Beckham. The former quarterback thinks the 30-year-old’s addition would place the Pittsburgh up there with the best units in the AFC, including alongside the reigning champion Chiefs.
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“I look at the AFC, I say you gotta add firepower, or people to slow down firepower because of the Chiefs,” Orlovsky said on Get Up. “This automatically does that for Pittsburgh. One: organisational structure, and the head coach knows what he’s doing. There’s a standard, a culture, an everyday expectation he’s gonna walk right into. Two: cheap quarterback with Kenny Pickett right now, you’re trying to build around that because he is cheap and you’re trying to get him to play as well as possible.
Could Odell Beckham Jr. join the Pittsburgh Steelers? (Jeff Lewis/AP/REX/Shutterstock)“Just imagine this offence if you’re a Pittsburgh Steelers fan: Najee Harris at tailback, who is still an awesome player. Then you got George Pickens who’s a burgeoning star at that position. Diontae Johnson and Pat Freiermuth at tight end - and you add Odell?
“We’re talking about an offence that’s got weapons and actual firepower to go chase down a Cincinnati Bengals, could go chase down a Kansas City Chiefs football team. So there’s a lot of teams that we could say Odell’s gonna be a good addition.”
Amid reports Beckham wanted $20m annually, he took to social media to insist the number was lower than that - but he didn’t want to play for a figure as low as $4m. Meanwhile, Steelers general manager Omar Khan said during the NFL Combine that he's excited about what Calvin Austin will bring after he returns from injury this season, while the roster currently has five wideouts under contract for 2023.
Regardless, the Steelers have explored signing the likes of Orlando Brown Jr. and Leighton Vander Esch, while they completed a move for Patrick Peterson so the team is certainly interested in adding veterans. Orlovsky added: “If you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers, I’m sitting there going, ‘Man, if we add this guy and he’s capable of playing the way he did on that Super Bowl run, our offense becomes very much so challenging the Cincinnati Bengals when it comes to firepower’.”