It’s generally understood that when a team makes the effort to trade for a player, they would ordinarily want to try to keep that player around. Often enough, such players who are traded only become available because the teams dealing them know they won’t be retaining him after the year when they his unrestricted free agency, however, as they enter the final deals on their current contracts.
That’s where the Pittsburgh Steelers are with veteran tight end Nick Vannett, whom they acquired in the course of the 2019 season. After Xavier Grimble was put on injured reserve and Vance McDonald was injured against the San Francisco 49ers, they sent a fifth-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks to get Vannett, a former third-round pick out of Ohio State.