MIKE WILLIAMS | KARL ROSER/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

The Steelers became a contender the moment they got Russell Wilson under center.

We’re about to begin finding out if they did enough in advance of this week’s NFL trade deadline to maximize that potential.

It would have been fantastic to have landed wide receiver Mike Williams back in 2021, the most recent of Williams’ two 1,000-yards receiving seasons, or in 2019, when Williams authored his first such campaign and averaged an NFL-best 20.4 yards per catch in the process.

The same can be said of edge rusher Preston Smith, who had 12 sacks in 2019 and a combined 16.5 the last two seasons.

PRESTON SMITH | ALYSA RUBIN/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

But those are not the two players the Steelers’ acquired in advance of Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline.

Williams had been so ineffective this season, his eighth in the NFL. It’s his first coming off an ACL tear and his first with the Jets. New York traded Williams for wide receiver Davante Adams, in part so they wouldn’t have to play him. His 12 catches, 166 receiving yards and 0 receiving TDs won’t be missed, presumably, as the Jets continue to plummet.

And Smith, while appreciated for his work ethic in Green Bay, was sent packing, along with his 2.5 sacks, to make room for younger players with more upside than Smith possesses in his 10th season in the league.

Neither changes the balance of power in the AFC by virtue of becoming Steelers.

But as complementary pieces, they’ll have a chance to make the sum of the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

And that might make the franchise’s much-sought-after first playoff victory since 2016 more attainable, which has been the object of this exercise all along.

The continued emergence of Calvin Austin III now that Wilson’s playing quarterback remains the most likely perception-changing dynamic at wide receiver. But if Williams can make a play here and there, convert a third down or score a touchdown at a critical juncture, that would certainly help. His proficiency at coming down with 50-50 deep balls and Wilson’s willingness to throw them need not be on display often, just occasionally when the Steelers really need a play to be made.

Smith can contribute at a minimum by being available to play when T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith are not. Neither was on the field late in the Steelers’ 26-18 victory over the New York Giants on Oct. 28. With the game on the line and with outside linebacker Nick Herbig (injured) unavailable along with Watt and Highsmith (both were gassed), the Steelers were reduced to Jeremiah Moon and Ade Ogundeji (who?) as outside linebacker for a critical snap.

Smith’s mere presence should help ensure they don’t find themselves in a similar predicament when it really matters, that outside linebacker never becomes this year’s inside linebacker, the position at which the Steelers just ran out of bodies a season ago.

All of which isn’t to suggest there isn’t a needle-mover at the Steelers’ disposal now who wasn’t prior to Tuesday.

Cornerback Cam Sutton, eligible again after an eight-game NFL suspension for violation of the league’s personal conduct policy, has returned as the presumptive nickel cornerback.

CAM SUTTON | KARL ROSER/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

He’ll immediately upgrade that position if that’s the position he winds up playing. But Sutton’s versatility, his ability to play elsewhere in the secondary may yet prove even more impactful.

“He was capable of playing safety at times and allowing [free safety] Minkah [Fitzpatrick] to move around and come down [closer to the line of scrimmage] and do other things,” head coach Mike Tomlin pointed out on Tuesday in advance of the Williams and Smith acquisitions. “And that versatility, that utility component [Sutton provides] is a major attraction to us.”

Fitzpatrick is a three-time All-Pro, in part because he’s the author of 19 career interceptions, four of which he’s turned into pick-sixes. But he hasn’t had one of either since 2022, when he led the NFL with six INTs.

The 2022 season, coincidentally, was the last of Sutton’s initial six-year run with the Steelers.

Factor Sutton into the trade-deadline haul and the game may have changed after all.

Just enough, perhaps, to change what’s attainable in January.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.