The big story of the week, aside from the Pittsburgh Steelers losing their second-straight game, is WR George Pickens’ usage. He played a season-low 34 snaps, 59 percent of the offense, in the loss to the Cowboys. Overall, Pickens was a non-factor, recording just three catches for 26 yards as RB Najee Harris led the team in receiving yards. WRs Van Jefferson and Calvin Austin III each played more snaps than Pickens.
Postgame, Mike Tomlin chalked it up to wanting to rotate Pickens and keep him fresh. He claimed it had nothing to do with an “underlying” issue aka punishment for something pregame or in-game temper tantrum. Many fans, including former QB Ben Roethlisberger, are skeptical. On the surface, that’s understandable. Why was the team’s No. 1 receiver playing so little? He must have been benched.
But I buy Tomlin’s explanation. While Pickens’ snap counts are on the lower end, breaking down his distribution doesn’t sound alarm bells. The charting our Tom Mead does paints that picture.
According to his data, the Steelers had 32 snaps out of 11 personnel, three-receiver sets (excluding the “no-plays” that didn’t count due to penalty). Pickens played 100 percent of them. Van Jefferson didn’t, he missed two snaps, while Austin also logged all of them.
Where Pickens was held out was on heavy-personnel packages. Of the 26 snaps that featured multiple tight ends (02, 12, and 13), Pickens only played two of them. One in the second quarter and the other in the fourth. Comparatively, Jefferson played 17 of them while Austin logged 12. Scotty Miller had 13 while Brandon Johnson, elevated from the practice squad, picked up three.
Admittedly, that’s Pickens missing a lot of time. While that is on the more extreme end of things, Pickens hasn’t played a ton of heavy personnel-package snaps this season. If there are times where he comes off the field, it’s been in those moments. Across the first month of the year, Pickens only logged 56.2 percent of non-11 personnel snaps. Here’s the wide receiver breakdown of those “heavy” snaps coming into the Cowboys game compared to the 11 personnel breakdown.
Heavy Personnel Snaps
Pickens – 56.2%
Jefferson – 46.9%
Miller – 37.7%
Austin – 9.2%
11 Personnel Snaps
Pickens – 95.5%
Austin – 88.8%
Jefferson – 78.4%
Miller – 20.9%
So we knew coming into the Cowboys game that Pickens played virtually everything in 11 personnel and saw his numbers drastically reduced in heavy packages. Pittsburgh had already been working to take him out in those moments, likely to help give him a breather, especially in more run-heavy situations.
Granted, Pickens saw an even larger reduction against Dallas. He played just eight percent of the heavy personnel, and it seems he and Austin swapped this game. Austin played about half, Pickens around 10 percent. Why? It could be a variety of reasons. Wanting to give Pickens more breaks, Austin being a feistier blocker, liking Austin’s speed off play-action. And before you think the Steelers were tipping their run/pass hand by taking Pickens out with their big personnel, they threw the ball exactly 50 percent of the time. There was balance.
Overall, one-game sample sizes are noise. There was a change in George Pickens’ usage but not a dramatic one. In Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons, Pickens played less than 40 percent of the team’s heavy snaps, outsnapped by Jefferson and Miller in those personnel groupings. In fact, Jefferson outsnapped Pickens for the game. There’s going to be ebb and flow to the season.
Had Pickens not been playing in 11 personnel or there was some other change in the data, I could’ve bought the “something happened” theory. But none of the numbers speak to anything suspicious. It’s just a more aggressive version of what Pittsburgh has been doing throughout the season. And it’s not exactly brand new. Last year, WR Miles Boykin played in a bunch of the team’s 13-personnel groupings. Pickens played only 28 percent of those snaps.
You can debate if it’s a good idea. It’s valid to argue Pickens should be playing more and not removed in these moments. Keep your best players on the field and don’t have Pickens cede snaps to Scotty Miller. That’s fair! But that’s a different argument. That’s arguing football and scheme, not “punishment” for tantrums.
Personally, I can live with the Steelers’ plan. The bigger problem is what happens when Pickens is on the field. A lack of effort in getting him the football, scheming him open, and treating him like “just another receiver” when he’s out there instead of the No. 1 where the ball should run through him. And Pickens has missed his own opportunities, including a backbreaking drop on 3rd and 4 that was a true turning point of the game. It’s more concerning than heavy-personnel snap counts.
There’s plenty to gripe about. George Pickens, Arthur Smith, the offense as a whole. But the concern over Pickens being frozen out of the offense because he was benched for his antics? I don’t see it.
