Player swap makes perfect sense for Steelers ahead of NFL draft

With only two days until the 2026 NFL Draft, trade speculation is everywhere. Teams are eyeing players to help them win now and are willing to give us some draft capital to get them. Other teams are short on picks so they might want to work deals to stockpile extra picks for the draft.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers are in both of these positions which makes a trade so much more viable. The Steelers need a quarterback and the Niners have Mac Jones as their No. 2. San Francisco needs and edge rusher and Pittsburgh has an extra in Alex Highsmith.

A player-for-player swap is rare in the league and while we would view it as fair, we decided to spice things up with some picks to help the Niners who only have six scheduled picks in this year's draft. Meanwhile, the Steelers have 12 picks and much more flexibility to work a deal.

Here's how our trade ended up and was accepted on the mock draft simulator.

Steelers get:

QB Mac Jones

Pick No. 58

49ers get:

EDGE Alex Highsmith

Pick No. 99

Pick No. 121

Pick No. 135

This helps both teams on multiple levels. Neither team has to leverage their first-round pick to get it done and it gives the Steelers three picks in the top 58 in exchange for no third-round picks. With the quarterback situation settled, the team can use those first three picks to bolster the offensive line, secondary and wide receiver.

This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Sending Alex Highsmith to 49ers for Mac Jones makes both teams better