Mason Rudolph isn’t the only one proud of George Pickens.
Joining him in that sentiment is former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson. Recapping Saturday’s NFL action on the Nightcap podcast with co-host Shannon Sharpe, Johnson praised Pickens for keeping his cool and putting the team first despite his zero-catch, zero-target night.
“What I was really proud to see tonight?” Johnson told Sharpe. “The fact that that the Steelers were winning and my brother George Pickens was very patient. He stayed in the game. He stayed focused, he contributed, he blocked, even though he wasn’t a part of the passing game. He kept his poise.”
On the scoreboard, Pickens looked like a non-factor, deliberately taken away by the Ravens after two red-hot performances. But he showed up on tape, blocking in the run and short passing game to open up lanes for others. Still, any fantasy owners playing in Week 18 didn’t like the output. Entering Saturday, Pickens had at least two targets in every game in his brief NFL career before putting up a goose egg against the Ravens.
As Rudolph said after the game, Baltimore doubled Pickens throughout it. It allowed WR Diontae Johnson to make the offense’s big plays, highlighted by a go-ahead 71-yard score to make it 14-7 in an eventual 17-10 win.
Sharpe related to Pickens getting through the game, a cold, rainy, and windy finale on the road.
“It’s tough to be in a game like that,” Sharpe said. “You’re cold. You are wet. They’re not even attempting to throw you the ball. And you know what’s at stake. The last thing you wanna do is throw your helmet, show frustration, miss a block.”
Pickens did all the little things right, building off what he showed in the Steelers’ Week 16 win over the Seattle Seahawks. He celebrated with teammates, blocked in the running game, and didn’t complain when the ball failed to go his way, even in 1-on-1 chances. Pittsburgh opted to run the ball three straight times inside the 10-yard line on its final true offensive possession (excluding the kneeldown) despite Pickens being singled up on the outside. It was the right call, burning clock and Ravens timeouts while taking a two-possession lead, 17-7 at the time.
It’s buy-in that interim OC Eddie Faulkner pointed out in his meeting with the media last Wednesday, noting the team had been working toward that goal throughout the season. Aside from Pickens’ Pro Bowl gripe, minor in the grand scheme of things, he’s been a great teammate following the weeklong saga after the Colts loss.
Johnson believes Pickens’ past two games, a pair of tremendously productive outings, helped quell any frustrations he might’ve had.
“I think he was content because the past two weeks he went crazy,” he said. “I’m talking about crazy crazy. ‘So you know what, I can have a game off and let Diontae Johnson, the balls went his way, he made the plays he needed to make,'” Johnson said of Pickens’ likely thought process.
Pickens put up 195 yards in the Steelers’ Week 16 win over the Bengals and followed that up with a 131-yard showing in Week 17 against Seattle. While he couldn’t build upon that for his finale, what he showed was just as important. Being a complete player means being a great teammate.
There’s an old story about a family helping a couple stranded on the side of the road change their tire, accepting nothing in return and only saying “today you, tomorrow me” as the reason for lending such a helping hand. That’s sort of like football. The last two weeks was Pickens’ time in the spotlight. Saturday, it was Johnson’s turn. Wait patiently enough and it’ll come back around on you. For the Steelers’ sake, hopefully that light shines during Wild-Card weekend instead of waiting until September.
