A potential Pittsburgh Steelers free agency target emerged, as the New York Jets officially released 3x All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams on Tuesday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports. The move saves the Jets just under $30 million in salary cap space.

The Jets were reportedly seeking a trade partner for the 32-year-old star, who’d just joined the team via a trade from the Las Vegas Raiders ahead of the 2024 NFL trade deadline, but they were unable to make a deal. Now, he finds himself arguably atop the list of available free-agent wide receivers, perhaps right in step with Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin, who is younger, but coming off a season-ending ankle injury.

Adams’ availability as a free agent does come at an interesting time — especially considering the fairly weak free agency and draft classes in 2025. There’s no doubt that the Steelers need a wide receiver, either. So, would a signing of Davante Adams actually make sense for the Steelers?

The first thing to consider is Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation. Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Tuesday that it likely that the team will be working on a deal to bring either Justin Fields or Russell Wilson back in 2025, which makes sense with the legal tampering period rapidly approaching on March 10. Both quarterbacks will likely draw interest in the free agent market, which would ultimately drive up the asking price for Pittsburgh on the backend. Assuming the team does reach an agreement with one of them, it would then make sense that veteran QB Aaron Rodgers is off the table, and Adams has historically been quite vocal about his desire to continue playing with Rodgers.

Then, there’s the age factor. Does Pittsburgh really want to try out yet another aged WR at this point? The Steelers have now gone that route in each of the past two seasons (Allen Robinson in 2023 and Mike Williams in 2024) with abhorrent results. Though there’s no doubt that Adams isn’t in his prime at this point, his 2024 campaign posted some interesting results, statistically, particularly when isolating the 11-game sample size with the Jets.

Despite what felt like an underwhelming campaign with the Rodgers and the Jets last season, Adams saw a massive increase in his overall efficiency when compared to his first three games of the year, played with the Raiders.

Per PFF, during his 11 games with New York, Adams exceeded his career average in yards per reception, yards per route run and yards after the catch per reception. There was a notable shift in his usage, too; Adams saw a 14.9% target share out of the slot compared to his career average of 7.0%. It seems likely that this shift in usage helped maximize his efficiency, especially given his age, and the Jets took full advantage of that, running him out of the slot on 52.1% of routes compared to his career average of 24%.

The answer to whether or not Adams is a fit might just lie in whether or not Pittsburgh’s willing to exploit that “cheat code” of getting him the ball over the middle of the field. Beat reporter Mark Kaboly recently vocalized Tomlin’s preference to avoid throwing over the middle of the field to minimize the risk of turnovers, which has been evident in the past several seasons. Per PFF, the Steelers are tied for the second-fewest targets to players aligned in the slot (613) dating back to the 2021 season (including the postseason) and have accumulated a league-low 4,129 pass yards on such plays. The Bears, who have the second-fewest such yards, have 4,401, for comparison.

Spotrac projects Adams for a two-year deal worth $27,165,174 based on comparable contracts for Stefon Diggs, Mike Evans, Tyler Lockett and DeAndre Hopkins. Projected with just over $56.5 million in effective cap space in 2025 and $139,229,955 in 2026, the move is possible — the only question is whether or not the Steelers get a quarterback like Justin Fields back under contract to justify that kind of investment in the passing game.