Since last Thursday night’s game against the Tennessee Titans, one of the key talking points has been WR George Pickens and his visible frustration during the game due to his lack of involvement in the offense. Pickens was targeted five times, but only caught two passes for -1 yards, posting a poor individual performance despite Pittsburgh getting the win in prime time.
Pickens would later take to social media to scrub his Instagram page of all Steelers posts and post cryptic messages on his story before taking that down and putting up all of his Steelers posts again. Head coach Mike Tomlin addressed it as a non-issue in his press conference yesterday while QB Kenny Pickett came to Pickens’ defense, stating he wants to play with guys who care about being involved and make an impact to help the team win.
“Everyone’s competitive,” Pickett said to the media Wednesday on video from Steelers.com. “It’s what you want. You want guys that want the ball. You want guys that want to win. I don’t want to be out there with guys that aren’t on that same wavelength as me and the rest of the guys out there. So, we’ll continue to work through it. Guys will have their good games and sometimes it will be one guy, sometimes it will be the other and that’s just kind of how it falls, but we gotta continue to get our guys the football.”
Pickett commended Pickens after the game, stating that the wide receiver is helping Pittsburgh win even when he isn’t padding the stat sheet. Given the attention that Pickens sees in coverage, as well as his impact as a blocker, Pickens was able to make a contribution to the offense in Pittsburgh’s 20-16 win against the Titans, even though his stats were basically nonexistent.
Pickett has stated in the past that he loves throwing the ball up to Pickens and allowing him to make a play. Pickett himself is a competitive player, desiring to be the reason that his team wins. Thus, he can relate to Pickens’ frustrations when he feels like he isn’t being used in a way to help the offense be successful. Still, Pickett put it into context, stating that the goal is winning at the end of the day and keeping that cohesiveness as a team amidst individual struggles.
“You understand it,” Pickett said regarding Pickens’ frustrations. “It makes sense. You’re not questioning it. You understand why it’s there. You just want to continue to stay together. That’s the biggest thing. That game went on to the fourth quarter and the fact that we all stayed together and found a way to win is a really important factor.”
Pickett could have added fuel to the fire, stating that Pickens had a chance to make a play if he had got his second foot down in-bounds for the touchdown the two almost connected on, but he didn’t bring it up. Instead of critiquing his teammate about the missed opportunities he did have, Pickett said he related to Pickens’ desire to make big plays for the team and that everyone needs to focus on staying together to overcome that adversity to win football games.
That’s what Pittsburgh has done to this point, seeing adversity on offense while yielding yards and splash plays on defense, but still finding a way to come out with wins. Hopefully, Pickens can take Pickett’s message to heart as Pickett is showing the character of a true leader, avoiding throwing his own guy under the bus, but rather standing beside him as the offense looks to continue to progress forward this season.
