Mike Williams trade already haunting NY Jets in AFC playoff picture

Mike Williams is already haunting his former team.

Justin Fried

Mike Williams / Kevin Sabitus/GettyImages

NY Jets fans have been watching the 1 o'clock window of NFL games in Week 10, desperately holding out hope for their team's postseason hopes. Unfortunately, a former player did his best to break their hearts in his first game as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Jets sent wide receiver Mike Williams to the Steelers in exchange for a fifth-round pick just before the trade deadline earlier this month. Williams has wasted little time making an impact with his new team.

The former Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver picked a good time for his first Steelers catch, hauling in a 32-yard touchdown from Russell Wilson to give his team a 28-27 lead late in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers would go on to hold on and defeat a talented Commanders team, improving to 7-2 and solidifying their place in the AFC playoff picture. That's bad news for a Jets team clinging to their postseason lives.

Mike Williams late-game heroics hurts NY Jets in AFC playoff standings

Williams only caught one pass in his Steelers debut, but that catch just so happened to be the game-winning touchdown. Steelers fans are celebrating while Jets fans watched in horror as their team's trade-deadline swap has already proved to be costly.

The Steelers now sit atop the AFC North with a 7-2 record, pushing the Baltimore Ravens to second place at 7-3. This solidifies the Steelers and Ravens as playoff teams, realistically giving the Jets two wild card seeds to fight for.

The Jets did receive a bit of good fortune earlier in the day, courtesy of Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos losses. The Broncos' loss on a last-second blocked field goal means a Jets win today will leave them one game back of the playoffs.

Still, the Jets would have preferred the clean sweep with a Steelers loss as well. Their former wide receiver made sure that didn't happen.

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Justin Fried

Justin Fried is an editor for FanSided who has over seven years of experience covering the NFL and various other sports. A diehard Jets fan since birth, Justin has served as the editor for The Jet Press since 2019, interviewing athletes such as Sauce Gardner, Curtis Martin, LaDainian Tomlinson, Joe Klecko, and many others. Justin has also worked closely with brands like Red Bull to help highlight the niche sectors of the sporting world. His four-part series on the sport of breaking remains one of his proudest pieces of work. In his spare time, Justin is an avid pro wrestling fan who is fortunate enough to have traveled to nearly 30 different countries.