Mike Tomlin often references the “fine line” at football’s highest level between the NFL’s All-Pro performers and those who round out the bottom of practice squads.
Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers are putting that to the test, at least at wide receiver. Already arguably the position on the team most lacking in depth, the Steelers will take the field for Sunday’s game at the Cleveland Browns without the two players who by far have provided almost all of the production from their WR corps.
The Steelers’ depth chart at wide receiver Sunday? It’s headed by a guy (Adam Thielen) who was waived just 3½ weeks ago.
The WR2? He (Marquez Valdes-Scantling) was on the practice squad less than two weeks back.
The third receiver (Roman Wilson) will be a player has been deemed so useful by the Steelers they made him a healthy scratch the past two games.
The No. 4 (Scotty Miller) likewise has gotten that “Sunday inactive” treatment for four games this season — which is more than the number of games (three) in which quarterback Aaron Rodgers has bothered to throw him a pass.
At least the Steelers’ WR5 against the Browns (Ben Skowronek) is a Pro Bowler … for his special teams play. It certainly isn’t for his four catches for 69 yards this season.
But, despite it all, the Steelers stubbornly insist they’ll be OK at one of an NFL offense’s most important positions, even with DK Metcalf (suspension) and Calvin Austin III (hamstring injury) unavailable against the Browns’ NFL No. 1-ranked passing defense.
“Man, it’s the NFL, man,” Valdes-Scantling said. “We’re all talented. We all can play. Obviously, losing a guy like DK for two weeks is not ideal. He’s one of the best receivers in the league. But we’ve made some plays in the pass game with or without him. And that’s the goal, to do that Sunday.”
Metcalf’s production alone (59 catches, 850 yards, seven total touchdowns) dwarfs the 2025 aggregate total of every other Steelers WR (52 catches, 586 yards, six touchdowns). Add in the absence of Austin, things look even more dire.
Even if you include prior 2025 stints for Thielen with the Minnesota Vikings and Valdes-Scantling with the San Francisco 49ers, all of the Steelers wide receivers who will be in uniform Sunday put together over the entirety of the 2025 season have combined for 36 catches for 378 yards and three receiving touchdowns.
For perspective:
• Eight times this season, an individual player in an individual game has had three receiving touchdowns.
• The Steelers’ unit leader in catches this season (Thielen) has 14. During nine occasions in 2025, in an individual game a player has had at least 14 catches.
• Wilson has the most receiving yards this season (166) among Steelers WRs projected to dress in Cleveland. Ten times this NFL season, a player in an individual game has had 166 or more receiving yards.
You get the point.
The Steelers receivers, though, are looking at it as: challenge accepted.
“Definitely,” said Miller, who has four receptions for 28 yards this season. “You’ve got to look at it as an opportunity, a chance to go out there and make plays and show what you can do. We’ve got a lot of guys … that haven’t had great opportunities this season. Really, our whole room.
“It’s a chance for us to just go out there and play well and just do our job. It’s really as simple as that.”
For what the Steelers’ projected WR corps for Sunday’s game lacks in 2025 production, much of it can be made up for in experience. The group of Thielen, Valdes-Scantling, Miller and Skowronek combines for 32 NFL seasons, 451 games and 1,071 receptions.
Thielen has played 177 games over 12 seasons — twice topping 100 receptions and twice earning Pro Bowl honors — and his next catch will be his 700th in the NFL.
“You learn in this league the longer you’re in it that you’ve really got to focus on yourself,” said Thielen. “You’ve got to focus on being ready, whether that be physically, mentally, and just be at your best on game day. You don’t really know what that looks like, so you just have to be prepared for everything.”
What should be of comfort to the Steelers is that over Rodgers’ 21-year NFL career, he’s built a reputation for spreading the ball around and being unafraid to throw to lesser-heralded players — if they’re open.
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, too, has long tended to utilize the bottom reaches of his “eligibles” depth chart. It likewise helps that the Steelers also have gotten good receiving production this season from running backs and tight ends.
Still, the WRs group — what’s left of it for now, at least — understands it’s being challenged.
“It’s a really good opportunity for guys to step up,” Skowronek said.
“However that happens, whoever steps up, we’ve just got to do it — and we’ve got to win.”