Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens created controversy by briefly taking down Steelers-related posts off his Instagram account on Friday and appearing visibly frustrated during the Pittsburgh Steelers Week Nine win over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday. While Pickens denied that the social media activity had anything to do with football or the Steelers, it seemed clear that he was frustrated after having just two catches for minus-one yard against the Titans. RB Najee Harris told reporters, including Chris Adamski of TribLive, that he’s had conversations with Pickens about dealing with frustrations.
“This is gonna be a part of the NFL. I talked to him at halftime, whenever you’re a key player in the offense, they’re not just gonna let you blow up the stat sheet. That’s what I think people fail to realize. They’re not gonna let you be a game-wrecker,” Harris said. “They’re gonna find ways to minimize that player. When you find ways to minimize that player, it creates somebody else an opportunity to eat. That’s a part of a team. That’s what I was telling GP. It’s ok to be frustrated, it’s just how you handle things when you frustrated.”
Harris said he was talking to Harris throughout the game and telling him he’d have his opportunities to make plays. Pickens did have an opportunity for a touchdown catch in the second half but couldn’t get his second foot down despite having ample room to do so.
Obviously, Pickens was a huge part of Pittsburgh’s offense while fellow WR Diontae Johnson was out with a hamstring injury, but since Johnson returned, Pickens hasn’t had as big of a role.
Pickens has just three catches in the Steelers’ last two games, and that’s going to be frustrating for a young receiver who was such a big part of Pittsburgh’s passing attack early in the season. But with defenses capable of limiting how Pickens can beat them, they’re going to look to take away him away with extra coverage any chance they can get, as Harris said. Mike Tomlin also talked about how defenses keying on Pickens is good for the rest of the offense, but for Pickens it’s understandably frustrating not getting the same looks or production that he was early in the season.
But when the opportunities do come to make a play, he has to capitalize, and he failed to do so with the missed touchdown against Tennessee. The better Pickens plays, the better Pittsburgh’s offense can be, but the most important thing is getting the win, and the Steelers got the win over the Titans with Johnson having a good game and the running game finally getting going. He can’t let his frustrations about his individual production or usage get in the way of the team goals, and that’s what Harris was trying to get through to him.
Pickens is going to have more opportunities throughout the course of the season. This team still has nine games left, and Pickens is too talented to not get more looks in the offense. He just has to realize the bigger picture when there are games he’s minimized, and that’s something that hopefully he’s working on.
