Maybe it’s partly a matter of culture, but Pittsburgh Steelers fans are uniquely conditioned to be averse to self-centered antics by wide receivers. It’s been a well-earned phobia brought upon primarily by the actions of Antonio Brown, who, despite his many faults as a human being, is one of the greatest to ever play the game.
It’s understandable from that perspective when the ears perk up around the city when a wide receiver displays some questionable behavior. And the big fault for second-year star George Pickens was in his preference to pout, seemingly over his lack of contributions, rather than celebrate teammate Diontae Johnson’s go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
As certain angles show, almost as soon as he realized that Johnson scored—his first touchdown since the 2021 season—Pickens made a beeline for the bench. He was later seen sitting on the bench in a frazzled state as Johnson celebrated the moment with teammates. He finished the game with two catches for minus-one yard, and then proceeded to engage in unusual social media behavior.
“Pickens was not a good teammate the way he waltzed off the field after Diontae Johnson scored the go-ahead TD late versus the Titans”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Ray Fittipaldo wrote in his latest chat session. “He can be mad. He can be frustrated. But he can also be a good teammate. Whether it’s Tomlin or Allen Robinson or someone else in that building, a message has to be delivered that his antics aren’t good for the team as a whole”.
While he advocated against disciplining Pickens for so visibly carrying out his frustrations in public, Fittipaldo does seemingly agree that he needs to be informed that what he is doing is not in the best interests of the team, or even himself.
To that end, the aforementioned Allen Robinson II did tell reporters yesterday that he has been speaking to Pickens in an effort to try to keep his frustrations under control. And head coach Mike Tomlin gave zero indication that he has any intentions of doing anything the public can see about his wide receiver’s behavior. He trivialized it all and called Pickens’ frustrations “a pebble in my shoe”.
Still, it all raises the question of where the line is. At what point do you have to do a little more than have a conversation with somebody? After all, Tomlin just benched T Chukwuma Okorafor for something that he said on the field a week ago. He has benched players before for disciplinary reasons, including Santonio Holmes and Rashard Mendenhall.
Ultimately, Pickens is upset that he is not contributing more, and we see the same things from guys like Davante Adams. He is not unique. The position that he plays is a frustrating one because it’s so dependent upon others to be able to contribute. Not that running backs haven’t been frustrated about not getting a carry in a key situation.
