(Editor’s note: This is excerpted from Mike Sando’s Pick Six of Dec. 29, 2025.)

3. The Steelers’ decision to spare DK Metcalf’s salary guarantees following his suspension reflects the nuance of these situations. But this story is not complete.

With a playoff berth at stake Sunday, Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers faced second-and-goal from the Cleveland 7, trailing 13-6 with less than 30 seconds on the game clock.

Ideally, this is when the Steelers’ future Hall of Fame quarterback might target the 6-foot-3, 229-pound wide receiver acquired in the offseason and signed to a deal averaging $33 million per season.

But with Metcalf serving a two-game suspension to end the regular season, Rodgers threw incomplete for receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling on second, third and fourth downs.

Two of the wide receivers on the field for the final play, Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen, are each on their third team since August. The other wideout, Scotty Miller, has started two games over the past five seasons and entered Sunday with 94 receptions for 1,182 yards and six touchdowns in his career (Metcalf had 90 catches for 1,048 yards and six TDs in 2022 alone).

Bad for the Steelers. Bad for Metcalf.

Teams around the league were watching to see how the Steelers would handle Metcalf's contract after Metcalf confronted a Lions fan in Detroit in Week 16. The resulting suspension gave Pittsburgh the right to invalidate $45 million in future guarantees. That right presumably endures in the absence of a hard deadline to make a decision.

"That is a club-precedent-type decision, so they have to be careful with how they handle it," a former GM said.

Fox's Jay Glazer reported Sunday that the Steelers would not be invalidating those guarantees, but the team might be able to revisit the issue later, up to the point when those guarantees vest.

"I don't know that you do anything," another exec said. "To me, it gives you flexibility. You only do it if it gets to a point where it is ugly. The other side of that is, what has it really been like? Do they regret acquiring him?"

In this case, Metcalf contended the fan had called him racially offensive names. The fan denied this, but the fan's history of badgering Metcalf, as reported by multiple outlets, could mean more in the Steelers' locker room than Metcalf's own history of losing his cool during games.