The big controversy of the week has been the effort, or lack thereof, from WR George Pickens on a run play in the red zone. It was a toss play to the side Pickens was lined up on, and he made a business decision to not engage in the block. His guy ended up getting in on the tackle to prevent a touchdown from RB Jaylen Warren. Pickens claimed that he did this to avoid injury and cited the situation that got Houston Texans WR Tank Dell injured as his reason why.
This has sparked a larger conversation about how players are responding to head coach Mike Tomlin’s message. Tomlin specifically said he had a great conversation last week with Pickens and then the latter had that low-effort play the very next game. Rich Eisen said on his show yesterday that defensive captain T.J. Watt told him in a production meeting last week that there are some players on the team who aren’t responding on the practice field to Tomlin’s message.
Former NFL OL Mike Golic and his son Mike Golic Jr. spoke about these subjects on their Gojo and Golic podcast posted on DraftKings YouTube Wednesday morning.
“You know Mike Tomlin, I know Mike Tomlin, you played under him for a little bit and I’ve known him for years,” Golic Sr. said. “If this in fact is the case with some of these players and what T.J. Watt said, if they don’t wanna practice or practice like Mike Tomlin wants to do, Mike Tomlin’s gotta be in football hell.”
There has been plenty of talk about the fading tradition of the franchise over the last few weeks. Many have been pointing to a lack of leadership in the locker room. Some of that talk has bled into questioning Tomlin’s leadership as the head coach.
“I remember the late, great Marty Schottenheimer,” Golic continued. “He thought it was about 10 years to where you kind of get to the point where guys start to tune you out a little bit, are looking over your shoulder, not really listening to you anymore. I don’t know if that’s the case now with Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh. If it is, it’s a shame because this guy has so much to offer.”
Year after year, you hear of players pointing to Tomlin as a head coach they most want to play for. He has generally been regarded as an excellent motivator and people manager over the years. As recently as last season, people were praising him for getting a young, developing team in position to nearly make the playoffs.
Tomlin addressed the media after practice on Wednesday in a rare mid-week appearance to discuss the overwhelming media noise surrounding Pickens right now. After everything that has transpired this week, if Pickens cannot respond in a positive way to Tomlin, it spells trouble for both of them.
