Would Jalen Ramsey even make sense with the Pittsburgh Steelers?

If you’ve been paying attention to the latest NFL news and rumors, you have heard the Pittsburgh Steelers interest in adding to their cornerback room in some form or fashion this offseason. These rumors date back to before the 2025 NFL Draft when it was reported the team contacted the Green Bay Packers regarding disgruntled, and often injured, cornerback Jaire Alexander.

As you know by now, the Packers released Alexander and this week he chose to play for the Baltimore Ravens on a one-year contract with plenty of play-time incentives involved.

With Alexander out of the mix, it doesn’t mean the rumors and reports are over. In fact, the rumors of a potential trade with the Miami Dolphins for veteran cornerback Jalen Ramsey are still circulating. But if I’m being honest, I can’t say things are heating up, not after ESPN’s insider Adam Schefter said Ramsey would prefer to play on the west coast.

“The Dolphins continue to have conversations about trading Jalen Ramsey, and I think that a trade there will get done,” Schefter said on The Pat McAfee Show. “The question is, when does it get done? Does it get done next week, the week after, prior to the start of training camp? I don’t know exactly when it’s gonna be, but Jalen Ramsey will get traded. It’ll be, I would expect, before the start of training camp. We’ll see how it shakes out, where he goes. I think he would like to go to the West Coast, to the Los Angeles Chargers, somewhere like that. And we’ll see how that happens.”

A player can want to play in a warm climate, or in a specific part of the country, but fans should know that’s not how trades work. If the Dolphins get the best trade offer from the Steelers, Ramsey will be heading to the city of Pittsburgh.

Ramsey signed an extension last season with the Dolphins, and the Steelers aren’t the only team who is interested in potentially trading for his services. The Los Angeles Rams have also made it public they’d love to have a reunion with Ramsey, but no deal has been made either way.

And that’s not the primary question is at this point. It isn’t would the Steelers make a deal, but would it make sense for the Steelers to potentially add Ramsey?

You can always say it is never a bad thing to add talented players to the roster, but after you already signed Darius Slay to a one-year $10 million dollar deal and have Joey Porter Jr. entering the 3rd year of his rookie deal, where would Ramsey fit?

Nick Farabaugh of PennLive.com suggests the Steelers would use Ramsey as their outside cornerback opposite Porter, and when the team flexes into their nickel sub package Ramsey would move inside, allowing Slay to play outside.

“Ramsey could come in and fill the team’s slot cornerback role. If that were to happen, Ramsey would likely play outside in the team’s base packages and then kick inside when they would go to their nickel packages.”

While this makes sense in a way, it’s not exactly a fool proof plan.

Making an investment in a player like Ramsey would certainly help the on-field production, but when you make a trade it also makes you wonder about the finances. Again, Ramsey signed an extension last season, and here are his cap hits for the remainder of his deal:

• $16,661,000
• $25,033,000
• $26,800,000
• $36,168,000

On top of those numbers, the Dolphins also added 3 void years to the end of the deal from 2029-2031.

Do the Steelers want to take on that deal? Sure, they could re-do the deal, but that could get messy with expectations on both ends of this potential trade.

In my opinion, Ramsey would certainly help the Steelers, but I don’t think he’s a genuine need. The Steelers need to add to the wide receiver room, but they have a lot of cornerbacks with proven experience on their current roster.

We’ll see how things play out, but let me know what you think in the comment section below, and be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for training camp in July.