Steelers' DK Metcalf Draws Ruthless Verdict As Seattle's Decision Looks Better By The Week

The Pittsburgh Steelers made one of their biggest offensive bets in years when they traded premium draft capital for a proven receiver and immediately paid him like a centerpiece. Pittsburgh was buying size, speed and the ability to tilt coverage. Two games into 2026, that investment is instead producing one of the most uncomfortable comparisons in football, because the organization that moved on has watched its own passing game race in the opposite direction.

Colin Cowherd believes DK Metcalf no longer resembles the player Seattle once built around. More damagingly for Pittsburgh, Cowherd thinks the Seattle Seahawks may deserve credit for recognizing the decline before the rest of the league did, especially with Jaxon Smith-Njigba now playing like one of the NFL's most dominant receivers.

During a recent episode of The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Cowherd compared Metcalf's start in Pittsburgh with Smith-Njigba's explosion in Seattle and revisited General Manager John Schneider's decision to make the trade.

“DK Metcalf looks like a shell of himself two years ago. Boy, when John Schneider moved off him, traded him to Pittsburgh, you’re like, we didn’t know at the time, John. It’s like his JSN, a one… He’s unguardable. I mean, literally nobody in the league can guard him. DK looks like he’s totally shot,” Cowherd said.

“Totally shot” is a massive conclusion after two games, and Pittsburgh has every reason to reject that part of the argument. The uncomfortable piece is how easy the comparison has become. Metcalf has eight catches for 67 yards and no touchdowns through two games, averaging 8.4 yards per reception. He followed a mistake-filled opener with four catches for 27 yards on nine targets in the 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots.

Smith-Njigba has spent the same two weeks turning Seattle's passing game into his personal highlight reel. He opened the season with eight catches for 122 yards and a touchdown, then shredded Arizona for nine receptions, 155 yards and three scores. Through two games, he has 277 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

That contrast did not begin this September. Smith-Njigba erupted for 119 receptions, an NFL-leading 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2025, setting Seattle's single-season receiving record and earning Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year honors. The previous franchise receiving-yardage record belonged to Metcalf, who posted 1,303 in 2020.

Pittsburgh knew it was paying for a different stage of Metcalf's career when it made the deal in March 2025. The Steelers sent Seattle a second-round pick and a seventh-rounder while receiving Metcalf and a sixth, then committed to an extension averaging roughly $33 million per season. He responded with 59 catches for 850 yards and six touchdowns in 15 games last year. Those are useful numbers. They are not the production normally associated with one of football's highest-paid receivers.

That is where Cowherd's criticism becomes more difficult to wave away as television volume. Metcalf does not need to match Smith-Njigba catch for catch for the trade to work for Pittsburgh. The Steelers did not acquire one player instead of the other; Smith-Njigba was never available to them. Their evaluation should be whether Metcalf gives their offense enough value to justify the draft capital, money and role attached to him, and the first two games of 2026 have fallen well short of that standard.

The drops have been part of it, but the lack of explosive production is just as striking. Metcalf has not recorded a catch longer than 16 yards through two games. Pittsburgh traded for a receiver whose combination of size and vertical speed was supposed to change how defenses aligned, yet the Steelers have generated almost nothing downfield while the offense has scored one touchdown in eight quarters.

Aaron Rodgers has continued publicly backing his receiver. After New England, Rodgers said he was not worried and expected the two to get things sorted out, a show of confidence Pittsburgh desperately needs while the offense searches for answers. Rodgers' public support matters, but eventually that faith has to produce something larger than reassurance.

Cowherd's Seattle comparison adds pressure because Schneider's side of the transaction no longer has to explain how it plans to replace Metcalf. Smith-Njigba already answered that question emphatically. Seattle moved the veteran, watched its younger receiver set franchise records, won the Super Bowl and has now opened 2026 with Smith-Njigba producing 277 yards in two games.

Steelers Need Metcalf To Stop Making Cowherd's Argument Easier

Two games cannot prove Metcalf is finished. His 2025 season included an 80-yard reception, six touchdowns and 850 yards despite missing two games, evidence that the physical ability did not simply evaporate when he left Seattle. Cowherd's “totally shot” description is an opinion, not a diagnosis supported by enough football to become a verdict.

Pittsburgh can still make the criticism look premature. Metcalf does not need a speech, another explanation for a drop or a reminder of what his contract pays. He needs the kind of Sunday the Steelers traded for: difficult catches finished, explosive plays created and enough production that defenses have to alter the game plan because No. 4 is on the field.

The problem for Metcalf is that the comparison will keep getting louder until that happens. Every Smith-Njigba explosion gives Seattle another victory lap, while every quiet Pittsburgh afternoon invites someone else to ask whether Schneider knew exactly when to sell. That may be unfair to a receiver only two games into a new season, but $132 million does not purchase much patience.

Cowherd went much further than Pittsburgh should after two weeks. Metcalf now has to make sure the next few weeks give everyone a reason to stop following him there.

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