There has been entirely too much conversation about Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens this week, particularly from members of the national media. Indeed, it seems that the team has been feeding them a steady stream of fodder, from QB Kenny Pickett to offensive coordinator Matt Canada to head coach Mike Tomlin, and we’ve been fed a weekly dose of opinions on each.
The most immediate focus in the past week, however, has been Pickens. After posting a two-catch, minus-one-yard stat line against the Tennessee Titans in a game in which he failed to finish a relatively routine play for a touchdown, he showed some questionable behavior.
Actually, he didn’t even wait until the game finished. He made a beeline for the sideline as soon as WR Diontae Johnson caught the go-ahead touchdown in the latter stages of the fourth quarter and appeared sullen on the bench, as though he were only interested if he were the one to have made the catch.
Johnson told reporters yesterday via Brooke Pryor of ESPN that he “had a good talk” with Pickens about that, and presumably the subsequent optics of his social media activity that followed, which included briefly scrubbing Steelers content from his Instagram profile.
“He understood, and I understood where he was coming from, as well”, Johnson said. “Nobody’s perfect. You can’t knock him. At the same time, he’s human, so I didn’t think too much about the situation. I know what it was from — frustration from the game, obviously”.
This is the latest in a series of sideline tantrums that have peppered Pickens’ young professional career. He has admitted that he gets bored when he’s not getting the football and making plays and he wants the attention, which fueled his desire to become a good player so eyes will be on him. But it’s clear that he needs to find healthier ways to channel these issues.
“Him doing what he did, yeah, there’s a better way to go about certain situations”, Johnson said about Pickens walking off the field following his touchdown. “But he felt like he had to handle it his way, but at the same time, it wasn’t the right time to do all that”.
He added that he advised Pickens about how he should handle the situation in the future. “You don’t want people creating a narrative of you”, he told the younger receiver, which is frankly very good advice for life in general. If you’re not telling your own story, you’re at a disadvantage. The problem is when you have to keep giving that advice over and over again. He basically told Pickens the same thing a year ago when he was upset during a game.
Even with his statistical and emotional decline over the past two weeks, Pickens is still having a successful second season. He has 30 catches thus far for 521 yards and three touchdowns. That puts him on pace for 64 catches by the end of the season for 1,107 yards and six scores. And with eight games left to play, he can even pick up the pace and make those numbers look even better. But he’ll have to get his head back in the game first, if it isn’t already.
