Rather than preparing for a postseason run, or even putting together a rally after dropping three games, the Pittsburgh Steelers are spending more time talking about WR George Pickens. Because everybody else is. And so they have to. Because they still need him, and they care for him, and they see him hurting himself.
And those are the sorts of things we don’t need to see. Those are the things the Steelers don’t want in public. Head coach Mike Tomlin made that very clear in his comments yesterday. This is a young man they are trying to protect while they nurture him and get him right.
And so whatever discipline he might face for his actions and words over the past week will come behind closed doors. He’s not going to be benched, as Tomlin confirmed. Asked about any potential repercussions for the young receiver, Tomlin told reporters, “Not that I’m gonna discuss with you guys”.
It’s impossible to say from the outside what’s going on inside. But like with WR Diontae Johnson earlier this offseason, Tomlin wants to take the quiet approach, which is right within his character. Just think of Antonio Brown and that situation from half a decade ago.
“It is very much a work in progress and so it is continual”, Tomlin said via the team’s website of Pickens’ growth and development. “It’s not gonna be one incident or one meeting or one form of discipline that’s going to institute the type of change that we’re hunting, to be quite honest with you. It is gonna be continual”.
Outside of being called out during meetings, it’s really hard to say in what manner these behavioral issues may be redressed internally. All we can go by is what we see on the field, at the end of the day, and frankly, Pickens is too needed there, as Tomlin basically admitted.
Of course, it’s precisely because of his talent that he and the team so far find his journey to be worth the headaches that it causes along the way. And it’s why they want to protect him. Airing things out in public wholesale is unhelpful, but the occasional judicious address has been used.
“I like to keep his growth and development and the things regarding his growth and development private, to be quite honest with you”, Tomlin said. “Talking about it in this setting doesn’t aid in the process or speed up the process. But rest assured there’s a commitment here, not only from us, but from him, in terms of growing as a man and a player”.
Quite frankly, this needs to be the low point for Pickens if he’s going to rise above it. While outside perception doesn’t matter, it’s never a good thing when even journalists and other media personalities are essentially calling for the team to cut ties with him.
And I’m talking about his non-football lows. Attacking the press, giving poor effort, and being a bad teammate in various ways—these things need to stop. That starts now.
