George Pickens should have stopped while he was ahead.
Using that phrase loosely, obviously, because the second-year Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver was never “ahead” of the situation that transpired Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts, displaying poor effort on a Jaylen Warren run on 1st and goal in the first quarter one play after hauling in a 15-yard pass.
The film doesn’t lie, and the film showed Pickens standing around watching.
Tuesday, he made things all the more worse, blaming the media for the criticism and hitting back at people who “never played football.” Not only that, Pickens defended his effort, stating he was trying to avoid an injury similar to the one Houston Texans rookie wide receiver Tank Dell suffered a few weeks ago, ending his season.
For former NFL defensive lineman and current ESPN analyst Marcus Spears, the comments from Pickens Tuesday were damning. Appearing on Get Up Wednesday morning, Spears ripped Pickens and stated that the comments are a terrible look for a football player.
“You know how bad this is for a football player, right? You know how bad the tape is? Literally, the tape is our resume. And I get it, that we are, me and Jeff [Saturday], are long out of the NFL. We are not players anymore. We understand that this is a different generation, and we were a different generation of players that played before us. We did things differently that they probably didn’t like. But not this,” Spears said, according to video via ESPN regarding Pickens. “There is a standard in the NFL for you to be a football player. That’s 101 that you learn that in pee-wee football.”
What Spears is referring to being 101 and learned in pee-wee football is the effort, finishing plays, driving your feet as a blocker. You avoid injury by playing through the whistle rather than loafing.
The Dell injury was rather unfortunate, but it was nowhere close to the play that Pickens stood around on. It was a goal-line scrum in which Dell was blocking in the middle of the defense, not by the numbers like Pickens was. It’s a sad, sorry excuse from a player in a situation where he should have simply owned it, accounted for it and moved on.
Instead, he passed the buck — again.
Stating that he was trying to avoid injury had Spears rather heated, with led to him questioning Pickens’ commitment to the game moving forward.
“I get it, the human side of George Pickens is like, ‘I saw receiver get his legs ran up on and I don’t want to get hurt.’ Bro, you done seen receivers get hurt running routes. You done seen them get hurt catching the ball over the middle. You’ve seen them diving in the end zone, trying to stretch out to get a, a touchdown and get injured,” Spears stated regarding Pickens’ response. “We’ve seen players get injured all kind of ways. So what are you going to do the next time you feel like you in a position to get hurt? What? That is the point.
“The point is 10 other guys are relying on you to do a job. That’s why this is the greatest professional sport that we have because you have to get a collection of players on the same page.”
The human side is understandable, like Spears stated. But again, if Pickens’ excuse was avoiding injury, then why is he playing football at all? Guys get hurt in so many ways.
He could pull a hamstring running a route, or tear up his knee, blow out an Achilles doing normal football stuff. Guys can get hurt away from the facility, too, in random ways. That’s life.
So, if Pickens truly was trying to avoid injury, what’s he going to do in the next situation where he’s asked to run a route over the middle and a hard-hitting safety is lurking? Or when there’s an opportunity to gain a few extra yards after a catch, is he going to fight through contact and leave it all on the line, or is he going to give himself up to be safe?
All he has done is dig himself an even deeper hole. It’s led to plenty of frustration from the fan base and the media, and undoubtedly has many in the organization irritated with the second-year receiver. Things have gone from bad to worse all season with Pickens. Now, it’s dealing with actual football stuff this time.
What a shame.
