Proposed Colin Cowherd Steelers trade could be the worst in NFL history
Fox Sports Radio personality Colin Cowherd has always had a love/hate relationship in his takes about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Honestly, I feel that’s more of a hate/hate relationship, as everything the host says is usually part of the “hot take” culture: I can never follow if he says these things for attention or if he truly believes in his ideas. Regardless, Cowherd has struck again with another wild idea following the Steelers’ early postseason exit:
“I would trade T.J. Watt, George Pickens, two first rounders and go get Shedeur Sanders if you think he’s a starting QB.”
The buzz did as intended, traveling rapidly around the internet and finding its way into this column. If that was the intention, then job well done and that’s all we need to discuss. However, if Cowherd believes his trade proposal would improve the Steelers, I may suggest the radio host stick to disclaimers about reality on his show and not quit his day job.
"I would trade T.J. Watt, George Pickens, two first rounders and go get Shedeur Sanders if you think he's a starting QB."
— @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/J8y2bU1lWz
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) January 16, 2025
First Round Picks
Cowherd’s proposed trade could potentially be one of the worst in NFL history if it were to transpire. It could eclipse the Cleveland Browns trade to the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson, which looks more and more to top the previous league-worst swap between the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings for Herschel Walker.
At the time, the Walker trade was the largest player trade in NFL history. Walker was sent to the Vikings with a third team, the San Diego Chargers, involved in an 18-player swap along with additional draft picks. The Cowboys received multiple players and draft selections, including three first round picks from the Vikings, in the transaction.
The Watson trade, which saw the Texans ship their former franchise quarterback to Cleveland in exchange for draft picks, including three of the Browns first round selections, is closing in on the Walker deal, as both Watson and Walker failed to live up to expectations with their new teams while their old franchises flourished after.
In both cases the Cowboys and Texans came out on the winning side of those trades, using the acquired picks to maneuver the draft board and rebuild their teams. The Cowboys would go on to win multiple Super Bowls in the 1990’s following the Walker trade, while the Texans have won back-to-back division titles and postseason games in the wake of the Watson deal.
The Steelers would be foolish to spend their picks in this manner as it would handicap their ability to pool top young talent from the NFL Draft – how the franchise typically builds. (More on this below as we discuss Sanders too.)
Trading Established Players
George Pickens has a bad game and Steelers Nation loses their mind. In their minds, it’s time to trade him. But for what?
Does Pickens have some flare ups? Yes. I wouldn’t go so far as to defend his maturity as being full, but to discount the passion he brings to the field is also foolish. We already saw what the Steelers offense looked like without Pickens in the lineup at the end of the season and it wasn’t pretty. This is a team that has desperately needed a second receiving threat since Antonio Brown left in 2019 and continues to claw to find one.
In short, the Steelers need a WR2 but yinz want to get rid of WR1? Make it make sense.
On the other end, T.J. Watt is a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. The Steelers definitely struggle without him on the field. It took the teams several years to find an edge rushing threat to replace James Harrison, and now the solution to the team’s middling winning seasons and playoff appearances with quick exits is to get rid of an elite player with a future Hall of Fame resume?
The Steelers are 1-10 all-time without Watt in the lineup. Again, make that trade make sense, because it doesn’t.
Trade Partner
The entire reason Cowherd is floating the idea of trading multiple first round picks and top players is because of where the Steelers would need to be in order to land one of the top quarterbacks in the upcoming draft.
Some believe that the Tennessee Titans could move out of the top slot, since they recently drafted Will Levis two seasons ago to develop as their quarterback of the future. The problem there is, Levis was benched multiple times this season and doesn’t appear to be on a path to stardom. The Titans could very well take a QB with the first overall pick, which means finding another partner to trade with.
The Cleveland Browns have the second pick. They’re not going to trade with a division rival when they have their own quarterback problems. The New York Giants, who have pick three, said goodbye to Daniel Jones and have no contingency plan in place either.
The New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars are on the clock with picks four and five. Both teams have invested in quarterbacks and will likely draft elsewhere, but would unsettled situations with the Las Vegas Raiders (pick six) and New York Jets (pick seven) cause those teams to jump up the draft board to land a passer?
If they do, those teams have infinitely better ammo to make a move as their picks in subsequent rounds are also higher up the board. That makes finding a trade partner highly unlikely for Pittsburgh, who holds pick 21, to snag one of the top quarterbacks in the draft – if there’s enough of them this time around to be considered for those high picks too.
Is There a Player Worth It?
Cowherd floated the idea of swinging big for the fences with Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, a second generation athlete and the son of NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
Sanders is a two-year starter at Colorado with 24 games under his belt: that doesn’t scream enough experience to use a first round pick on, but someone may fall in love with his big and accurate arm, as we saw teams fall of one another to take six different QBs in the top twelve picks last year.
Sanders threw for 7,364 yards, 64 touchdowns and 13 interceptions on 907 attempts during his collegiate career. He’s the shiny name everyone discusses, since he’s linked to his father, who also happens to be the coach at Colorado.
To quell some of that excitement, however, one only has to look at the recent track record of college quarterbacks entering the NFL. While Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix were successful as rookies in 2024, the jury is still out on the remaining quarterbacks drafted and there’s the possibility that Daniels and Nix could also regress next season. (Much like C.J. Stroud did in his second campaign.)
There’s also the roulette wheel of drafting a bust. It cost nothing but a first round pick for the Steelers to take Kenny Pickett in 2022, but he’s already out the door after a lackluster set of starts. Other first rounders who fell from grace recently include Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Mac Jones, Justin Fields, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins, and Drew Lock. Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold bounced around the league multiple times and are still considered to be inconsistent in many circles. Then there’s countless other examples such as Mitchell Trubisky, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariot, Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, E.J. Manuel and more.
Regardless if you believe Sanders is a surefire pick or not, the success rate of rookies developing into franchise quarterbacks is a coinflip at best.
Now take away that quarterback’s best receiving threat, the defense’s top player that they can’t win without and two future top 32 players from the NFL Draft to surround your QB with, and that sounds more like a recipe for disaster than success – and it’ll be even worse, maybe the worst ever, if that quarterback is also a bust.
