If what has transpired this week between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Jacksonville Jaguars qualifies as trash talk, then it’s been pretty tame. Nothing I’ve come across has read as malicious or intentionally antagonistic. Rather, I’ve seen comments made out of a sense of confidence, or simply honesty.
Like when Steeler WR George Pickens was asked by local reporter Brian Batko about why the Jaguars’ coverage numbers are bad this year. “Their d-line, that’s what they depend on a lot”, he said, “and they kind of hope the guys hold up long enough. It’s kind of a ‘hope’ defense, for sure”.
It’s not a comment that will bring about the end of the world, I would imagine. He’s just expressing his opinion, which does cast the secondary in a bit of a negative light—a secondary that includes one of his college teammates, who will probably be guarding him. Still, these things matriculate out in the atmosphere, and Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson was asked on Friday if Pickens’ remarks made it to the locker room.
“I’ve seen it, but I haven’t heard it from the team. I don’t know, I’m sure they’ve seen it”, he said, via the team’s website. “You’ve still got to go play, bottom line. You’ve got to go play. I try to coach our guys and I know Coach [Mike[ Tomlin does the same thing, you’ve got to coach your guys not to put information like that out there and just keep things to yourself. But at the end of the day, you’ve still got to go play and make plays and execute, and that’s what it comes down to”.
It’s significant that Pederson notes his confidence that Tomlin coaches his players to be mindful of putting out bulletin board material, but there’s only so much you can do to control the narratives while still allowing your players to have personalities.
And Pederson knows his own players are not entirely immune to those sorts of things. In fact, his cornerbacks were talking about Pickens before the Steelers wide receiver made his comment about the Jaguars’ defense relying on the hope that their defensive line can get pressure.
So I don’t read that comment as him taking a shot at Tomlin and how he keeps his team disciplined at all. That’s not what his tone or body language conveyed. He was just noting what was said and what teams tend to do to avoid antagonizing their opponents.
According to him, at least up to this point he hasn’t heard that comment being talked about among his players. I don’t think it’s exactly going to be a storyline during the game at all, quite frankly. It’s about as big of a deal as Trevor Lawrence accurately describing the Terrible Towel as little and yellow when asked if he knew what it was—which is to say, it’s not a big deal. Because the Terrible Towel is little and yellow, even if we want to call it gold. And every defense relies on the hope of the front creating pressure.
