Three receivers the Steelers should target after trading George Pickens, plus a sneak peek of the NFL schedule

Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

The beginning of May is usually a quiet time in the NFL, but Jerry Jones decided to spice things up on Wednesday by making an early morning trade for George Pickens. That trade was pulled off at 5:50 a.m. CT. Apparently, Jerry doesn’t sleep, which is actually completely believable. 

Anyway, we’ll be taking a look at the fallout from the trade in this newsletter, plus we’ll be taking a sneak peek at the NFL schedule. 

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. 

1. NFL schedule release sneak peek: Seven things we already know about the 2025 schedule

The release of the NFL schedule is officially less than a week away, and we’re going to celebrate that fact by taking a sneak peek at what’s in store for the 2025 season. Although we don’t know much about the 2025 schedule, here are seven things we do know: 

1. Thursday night opener in Philadelphia. The reigning Super Bowl champion gets to host the opening game of the season, which means the Eagles will be the home team in the Thursday night opener. Their home schedule consists of the Giants, Cowboys, Commanders, Lions, Bears, Rams, Broncos and Raiders, so one of those eight teams will be featured in the opener with the Eagles. So who will they play? There are a lot of attractive options there: The NFL loves a good playoff rematch, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Rams or Commanders headed to Philadelphia. Sending the Lions to Philly would also be an intriguing opener, which will be played on Thursday, Sept. 4. We ranked the best options and you can see that here. 
2. NFL set to play in Brazil for the second year in a row. For the second straight year, the NFL is putting a Week 1 game in Sao Paulo. The Chargers will be the home team for the game, which will be played on Friday, Sept. 5. There’s been a report that the Chiefs will likely be the opponent in this game, but that’s not set in stone yet. If it’s not the Chiefs, it could be the Broncos, Raiders, Texans, Commanders or Vikings. (The Chargers also play the Colts and Steelers at home, but they almost certainly won’t be playing in Brazil since they’re already scheduled to play an international game this year.)
3. Three games will be played in London. The Jets, Browns and Jaguars will each be the home team for one game in London. The Jaguars game will be at Wembley Stadium while the Jets and Browns will play their game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. 
4. Three cities will be hosting a game for the first time. The NFL will be breaking new ground this season with Berlin, Madrid and Dublin all hosting a game for the first time. The Colts will be the home team for the game in Germany while the Dolphins will get hosting duties in Spain. As for the game in Irish capital, the Steelers will be the home team there. 
5. Lions and Cowboys on Thanksgiving. The NFL’s annual Turkey Day tripleheader will be returning in 2025 with the Lions and Cowboys hosting a game on Nov. 27. The NFL’s newest tradition will also continue on Nov. 28 with Amazon streaming a Black Friday game. 
6. Week 17 Christmas tripleheader that will make history. The league has historically avoided scheduling any games when Christmas has fallen on a Thursday — there has NEVER been a Thursday game on Christmas in NFL history — but the league is now fully embracing the holiday, so we’re getting three this year. If the NFL sticks to the same Christmas tripleheader schedule that it has had in the past, then the games will be staggered throughout the day with kickoff times at 1 p.m. ET (Netflix), 4:30 p.m. ET (Netflix) and 8:20 p.m. ET (Amazon).
7. Every home-and-away opponent for all 32 teams. Although we don’t know the times and dates for any games yet this year, we do know who each team will be playing, and you can check out the home-and-away opponents for all 32 teams by clicking here.

You can check out our full sneak peek here. The NFL schedule release has become a major offseason event for the league, and this year should be no exception. 

2. George Pickens fallout: Three receivers the Steelers could sign to replace Pickens

With George Pickens no longer in Pittsburgh, it won’t be surprising if the Steelers look to sign a receiver at some point in the near future. They do have Calvin Austin III and recently signed Robert Woods, but they’ll likely still need to add a strong No. 2 receiver if they want their passing game to be any good this year. 

So who could they target? Let’s take a look at three names. 

• Jets WR Allen Lazard. “It appears one player the Steelers may pursue is Lazard, who is midway through a four-year deal that he signed back in 2023. Lazard, who played with Aaron Rodgers in both New York and Green Bay, is reportedly in play to be traded to Pittsburgh, according to Pro Football Talk.” You can read more on Lazard here. 
• Keenan Allen. “Allen is probably one of the top remaining free agents looking for a new home, although he is now 33 years old and coming off a campaign in which he recorded a career-low 49.6 receiving yards per game. However, Allen still caught seven touchdowns last year with Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears, and is a reliable perimeter target at 6-foot-2, 211 pounds.”
• Amari Cooper. “Maybe Cooper isn’t the same wide receiver he once was now that he’s about to turn 31, but keep in mind he’s just one year removed from a season in which he caught 72 passes for a career-high 1,250 yards and five touchdowns.”

Jordan Dajani has a full list of possible targets for the Steelers and you can check it out here. Jeff Kerr also covered some overreactions from the trade, and if you want to read those, you can do that here. Also, Bryan DeArdo took a deep dive into why the Steelers deserve credit for trading Pickens, but also some blame for not being able to work things out. You can check that out here. 

3. Top free agents at every defensive position

In Wednesday’s newsletter, we took a look at the best available free agents on the offensive side of the ball, so now we’re going to cover the top guys available on defense. Bryan DeArdo broke down the top-three guys on the market at each position on defense. 

EDGE

• Za’Darius Smith: “A two-time Pro Bowler, Smith is coming off a solid 2024 season that saw him record 9.0 sacks and nine tackles for loss while playing for the Browns and Lions.”

Cornerback

• Stephon Gilmore: “Gilmore visited the Cowboys (his team during the 2023 season) late last month, so it’s clear that teams are still interested in his services. A former Defensive Player of the Year, Gilmore is still a solid starting cornerback.”

Safety

• Justin Simmons: “Simmons’ availability is odd to say the least. The former two-time Pro Bowler continues to be without a team despite putting up decent numbers last year for the Falcons. Simmons reportedly wants to join forces with the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles.”

If you want to see the full list of the top defensive players still on the market, we’ve got that here. 

4. Tyreek Hill ranks the five best quarterbacks in the NFL

If there’s one player on the Dolphins’ roster who has no problem sharing what’s on his mind, it’s Tyreek Hill. The Dolphins receiver was recently asked to rank the top-five quarterbacks in the NFL, and four of the names on his list made a lot of sense:

Not too many people out there would argue with any of those names being on the list of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL. So who did Hill have in the fifth spot? You’d think it would be Tua Tagovailoa, but if you thought that, you’d be wrong. Nope, Hill didn’t have Tagovailoa on his list. Instead, he put Baker Mayfield on it. Mayfield is a solid quarterback, but I’m not sure anyone besides Hill would rank him as a top-five guy. 

At this point, it almost feels like Hill is TRYING to do whatever he can to get traded. 

Let’s not forget, Hill said he wanted out of Miami following the team’s 2024 regular-season finale, and although he backtracked on his comments, he’s probably not going to make too many friends in the locker room with his hot take that Mayfield is better than Tagovailoa. 

Hill apparently had time to rank quarterbacks this week because he was getting ready to go to the hospital. The Dolphins receiver had a second surgery on his wrist Wednesday, and you can get all the details on that here. 

5. NFL offseason grades: Steelers earn the only ‘A’ in the AFC North

We’re going to be spending the next few days grading every NFL team based on how they’ve done this offseason, and here we have the AFC North. 

Let’s check out the grades: 

• Steelers: A-. “Pittsburgh was determined to improve its physicality …. and it’s fair to say the Steelers have accomplished that this offseason with the additions of DK Metcalf, first-round pick Derrick Harmon, Darius Slay, Brandin Echols, Malik Harrison and rookies Yahya Black and Jack Sawyer.”
• Ravens: B+. “In free agency, the Ravens gave Lamar Jackson another playmaker when they signed Hopkins, who proved with the Chiefs last year that he still has some gas left in the tank. Baltimore then spent the draft adding depth to its offensive line and using a first-round pick on a player in Malaki Starks who could be an immediate starter.”
• Bengals: B. “The Bengals’ offseason was largely going to be defined by the contract statuses of wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins as well as Pro Bowl pass rusher Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals got some much-needed wins by locking up Chase and Higgins, and the cherry on top was re-signing Mike Gesicki, a favorite of quarterback Joe Burrow. Cincinnati still needs to come to the negotiating table with Hendrickson, who has gone public with his displeasure with how things have gone so far regarding contract talks.”
• Browns: B-. “Quarterback continues to be an enigma for the Browns, who will be in a prime position to select a top quarterback in next year’s draft after they picked up another first-round pick in the trade that moved the Jaguars up to the No. 2 spot. This season, the Browns have several options for QB1. At this point, it appears to be a two-man race between former first-round pick Kenny Pickett and 40-year-old Joe Flacco, with rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders competing for one of the backup spots.”

If you want the full explanation for each team’s grade, you can check out Bryan DeArdo’s story here.  

6. Extra points: Rams are headed to Hawaii

It’s always a busy time in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that’s happening, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

• Rams holding minicamp in Hawaii. The Rams are going to be spicing up their mandatory minicamp this year by holding it in HAWAII. The team will be headed down there from June 16 to June 19 and we’ve got the details here. The Rams will be spending a lot of time flying over the Pacific Ocean over the next 18 months. Not only do they have minicamp in Hawaii, but they’ll also be opening the 2026 season in Australia. 
• Ravens want to host the NFL Draft. The Ravens are in the “exploratory” phase of possibly hosting the NFL Draft in either 2029, 2030 or 2031. The draft is set for the next two years with the event slated to he held in Pittsburgh in 2026 and then Washington, D.C., in 2027. After that, Buffalo seems to be the frontrunner for 2028, which is likely why the Ravens aren’t looking to host until 2029 at the earliest. 
• Dallas Goedert takes pay cut to stay with Eagles. There had been some speculation that the tight end would be traded or cut this offseason, but that won’t be happening after Goedert agreed to take a pay cut. The 30-year-old was due to make $14 million in cash in 2025, but that number is now down to $10 million, although Goedert will have a chance to earn another $1 million in incentives. 
• Bills not worried about James Cook. The Bills running back hasn’t shown up so far for the voluntary portion of the team’s offseason workouts, but general manager Brandon Beane isn’t too concerned. “I know we’ve had people in the building that he’s been talking with, and I have no doubt when it’s time to play football, he’ll be ready to roll,” Beane said on Mad Dog Sports Radio on Wednesday, via NFL.com. Cook is unhappy with his contract and is looking to get an extension that could pay him as much as $15 million per year. The Bills start OTAs on May 27, but Cook isn’t required to be at practice until mandatory minicamp kicks off June 10.