Saying Week 5 was not good for George Pickens would be an understatement. Not only did the Pittsburgh Steelers lose, but he also had an extremely poor game. Couple that with the character issues that resurfaced last Sunday, and there are a lot of questions surrounding Pickens. Former NFL offensive lineman Kyle Long wants the Steelers to try to get Pickens engaged against the Las Vegas Raiders early in the game.
“If I’m in charge of where George Pickens lines up, I’m gonna match him up with the biggest shit talker on the Raiders’ team,” Long said Thursday on his podcast, Pushing the Pile. “I wanna get him pissed off on the first drive. I wanna piss George Pickens off. If that’s what it takes to get him emotionally invested in a football game, I’ll do it.”
That is an interesting strategy from Long. It feels counterintuitive for the Steelers to frustrate Pickens early, but Long did play eight NFL seasons, so maybe he’s seen that work before. Pickens is being criticized for a perceived lack of effort on some routes against the Dallas Cowboys, so maybe the Steelers do need to find a way to motivate him.
Making Pickens angry might not be the best way to go about that though. That sort of thing happened against the Cowboys, and it did not end well. It felt like Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis was talking trash to Pickens throughout the game. He even went to celebrate their victory in Pickens’ face. Pickens responded by grabbing his facemask and throwing him to the ground.
Long went on to explain why he believes frustrating Pickens could be a good idea.
“Make him understand and feel that he’s in a football game because that’s how you get an alpha to respond,” he said. “I’m not quite sure George Pickens is an alpha, but physically he is. If you can turn him into a mental alpha with some shit, put some shit on his plate from the beginning of the game. You could see George Pickens play with a little gusto.”
Long’s theory makes a little more sense with that context. Pickens does need to become more mentally tough. He’s had some adversity in recent weeks, and he has not responded well. In the NFL, you can’t get bogged down when things don’t go right. That’s human nature. Things are going to go wrong. The important part is how you respond.
Mike Tomlin did seem to test Pickens against the Cowboys as well. He cut Pickens’ snaps by a significant amount, although he stated after the game that wasn’t any kind of punishment. It sure felt like one though. Where’s the sense in benching your best offensive weapon, especially when the rest of the receiving corps is unproven? None of it feels right.
If Pickens has a quiet game again this week, it will be interesting to see how he responds. It would be a terrible look if he lashes out again. The Steelers probably don’t want to frustrate Pickens like Long is suggesting, but other teams certainly will. They’ve seen how Pickens has responded to such behavior this year, and they’ll likely want to test his mettle. The decision might not be up to the Steelers.
