The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Should Mike Tomlin bench WR George Pickens for Saturday’s game?
My, how the turn tables. It seems as though there are a lot fewer rabid fans of Steelers WR George Pickens today. After repeatedly airing his frustrations on the field and making unhelpful comments to the media, all eyes are now on head coach Mike Tomlin and how he will respond.
Having spent time in his pre-game press conference on Monday discussing the areas in which his young stud receiver must grow, Pickens proceeded to exhibit his lack of maturity while meeting with reporters the following day.
After being asked about certain plays in the previous game in which he exhibited a lack of effort, he fired back at reporters, saying that they don’t play football. But I’m sure plenty of people who do play football currently would have something to say about his effort.
One of the biggest fan topics when it comes to their favorite teams is jersey purchases. Official, authentic jerseys are a bit of an investment and you want to be sure that you can wear one with pride long after that player retires. Many have a policy of waiting until a player signs a second contract to make sure they’ll be around for a while. Right now, fans may think twice about giving a George Pickens jersey out for Christmas, because it’s becoming harder to grow confident he’ll be here two or three years from now.
He basically made Tomlin look like a fool by lashing out at reporters, giving an absurd response about why he gave up on his block, and then denied having a meeting with Tomlin after his head coach had talked about it happening.
So the question becomes, what does Tomlin do about it? He has been fielding questions about how to handle Pickens all year, even going back to last year, and his efforts to downplay it are becoming increasingly unconvincing. Will he opt to discipline him in some way that will be obvious, such as benching him, if even for a quarter, or a drive? He has benched players before for disciplinary reasons.
