The Pittsburgh Steelers have been doing this differently so far in 2019. For whatever reason, the Steelers have been extremely active trading draft picks away to acquire players from other teams.
The most noteworthy trade was with the Miami Dolphins for Minkah Fitzpatrick, which sent the Steelers’ 2020 1st round pick to Miami, but on Tuesday night the Steelers made another trade, this time with the Seattle Seahawks, for tight end Nick Vannett. The Steelers sent their 2020 5th round pick to Seattle for the tight end.
While most saw the fact Vance McDonald is nursing a shoulder injury, one we don’t know the severity of yet, and the team being paper thin at the tight end position, it made sense to connect the dots and assume Vannett was signed because McDonald’s injury was considered a long-term injury.