Coming out of Pittsburgh’s last game against the Tennessee Titans, one of the big storylines was what happened after the Steelers’ 20-16 win. WR George Pickens looked visibly upset at the end of the contest, frustrated by his lack of involvement in the offense as he caught only two passes on one target for minus-one yard on the night. Pickens would later scrub his social media of all Steelers stuff and post cryptic messages, only to state that the media was reading into things too much and to not make a big deal out of something that isn’t one.
Head coach Mike Tomlin iterated the same sentiments yesterday in his press conference, stating that the Pickens drama is nothing more than “a pebble in his shoe.” Former Steelers TE Matt Spaeth jumped on The Morning Show with Adam Crowley and Dorin Dickerson, who asked him about Pickens and any similarities he sees between he and Spaeth’s former teammate: Antonio Brown. Spaeth mentioned that he understands why Pickens is frustrated as a receiver who want to make a notable impact, but he does take issue with his attitude taking away from being there for his teammates.
The problem I have with [Pickens] is the situation where Diontae [Johnson] scores and he walks out the field and he’s not happy,” Spaeth said on The Morning Show. “Because at the end of the day, football is a team game and you gotta think Diontae… I bet you they’re buddies in some ways. I’m sure Diontae has mentored him in a lot of ways, him being a young guy and for him to just kind of walk off after Diontae scores a your team goes up and is probably gonna win the game. But also a guy that had like a severe touchdown drought, like, you should be happy for that guy and he should have been one of the first ones over there celebrating with him.”
The moment that Pickens appeared upset on the sideline in-fact came after Johnson scored his first touchdown dating back to 2021, breaking a long scoring drought for the veteran receiver. Multiple teammates celebrated with Johnson on the field after the play and later on the sidelines. But Pickens was caught sulking on the bench, disappointed with his lack of an impact in the contest.
It’s not bad for Pickens to want to crave being the reason the offense is successful, but like Spaeth said, it can become an issue when his lack of success on the field takes away from being a good teammate to those around him. Ultimately, Pickens needs to learn to check his ego at the door in those moments, knowing that bigger games are going to come. In that moment, he should have been locked in, enjoying playing winning football with his teammates. Spaeth mentioned that this was caused the downfall of Antonio Brown.
“I think as his success grew, the monster grew,” Spaeth said. “For many, many years, he was great. And then it just kind of spiraled and I think with his kind of enormous success, he got an enormous ego with it.”
Steelers fans hope that Pickens can become the player that Brown was on the field but pray that he never becomes what Brown was off it and in the locker room. Obviously, Tomlin and the leadership on the team must do a good job of helping Pickens stay on track. It’s also on Pickens to learn to put his ego aside and be the best teammate possible, making sure the monster never rears its ugly head out of him like it did for Brown.
