Heading into Sunday’s AFC North road game at Cincinnati, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be looking to get back to their winning ways following a 24-19 Week 11 loss to the Cleveland Browns. In order to do so they’ll need the less talking and more playmaking from their talented but mercurial wideout George Pickens. The former Auburn and Georgia product has all the tools, but like most pass catchers he often lets his mouth and actions get in the way of his play.
During a recent media session, the normally talkative Pickens was surprisingly pretty mum. After creating a bit of a firestorm from following his comments made in wake of the loss to the Browns, Pickens kept his response to media questions pretty simple, in fact he even channeled his inner Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch with this.
“I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
Very odd for Pickens, who loves the camera, to not have much to say.
Mike Tomlin Effect?
Pickens’ actions makes one believe that legendary Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who with a win Sunday will clinch his NFL record 18th consecutive non-losing season to begin a coaching career, may have said something to him about his comments following the Browns loss.
“Conditions played a huge, huge part in today’s game. I don’t really think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all,” the star wideout said. “I think the conditions kind of saved them today.”
“The snow, the conditions were so bad,” he continued. “I don’t even think the QB could see sometimes. And when you got conditions like that, at the opponent’s home field, it kind of plays in their favor.”
That type of stuff isn’t gonna fly in a Mike Tomlin-led locker room or with the Steelers, who have built their legendary franchise on the toughness and grit and would never blame an outcome of a game on weather.
It was the latest in a series of immature things done by Pickens.
Always Open
In October, Pickens wore eye black to help with the sun, but this wasn’t all, as his had words written on the tape, that read “open f—ing always.” That led to a fine being levied against Pickens, since the league prohibits players from doing that. When asked did he know that players couldn’t do that, Pickens was shocked to find out that it wasn’t legal.
“Never seen (the rule) before,” he said, when asked if he was aware of the league’s policy pertaining to eye black. “Have you seen it before?”
Pickens Needs To Show More Effort
After catching 63 passes for over 1,100 yards and five touchdowns last season, this season he’s got 52 receptions for 776 yards and two touchdowns with six games left. The biggest difference in Pickens’ numbers is his 18.1 yards per reception in 2023 has dropped to 14.9 this season.
A lot of that is because of his lack of effort when he isn’t the primary target, and that’s a sign of the lack of maturity that still needs some major developing.
