George Pickens has had an interesting year, to say the least. When the Pittsburgh Steelers win, he’s usually a big contributor. However, when they’ve lost, he’s had some extremely low moments. Week 12 provided an unfortunate example. Pickens was fighting with a Cleveland Browns cornerback to end the game and then made some bold comments to the media following the Steelers’ 24-19 loss.
“I thought it was a bad look,” former NFL linebacker LaVar Arrington said recently on his Up on Game podcast. “What’s your take? Pickens has been one that has come up quite a bit in the media in terms of almost like he’s the new iteration of Antonio Brown, Mr. CTESPN representative.”
It might be a little bit of a stretch to compare Pickens to Brown. It’s true that Pickens has had some emotional outbursts this year. However, nothing he’s done has been as strange as Brown’s actions. With the Steelers, Brown was arguably the best receiver in the NFL. His attitude was the only thing that held him back.
For most of his Steelers tenure, Brown wasn’t too much of a problem. Mike Tomlin and company kept him under control for most part. However, things weren’t always perfect. As soon as he left Pittsburgh, Brown’s warts became much more apparent.
The Steelers traded Brown to the Oakland Raiders, but he never played a down for them. Even though it was just a few months, Brown was involved in several bizarre situations with the Raiders. It got so bad that they had to cut him.
Things haven’t gotten much better since then. Pickens isn’t as much of a problem as Brown. Even though he’s been immature at times, Pickens is still young at only 23 years old. He should act more professional, but he hasn’t done anything reprehensible yet.
During that same podcast, Arrington went more into depth on why he had a problem with Pickens’ postgame comments in Cleveland.
“I would say have a little bit more professionalism about you. They beat you,” Arrington said. “They had to play in the same weather conditions that you played in and deal with the same things that you had to deal with in the game. They have not been a good team up to this point.
“So, why would you allow a team that hasn’t shown to be a good team be able to take it to you and beat you in the elements the way that they did, by the way, in a divisional game?”
Arrington makes a solid point. There was no reason for Pickens to call the Browns a bad team after they beat the Steelers. There was even less reason to blame their loss on the weather. It screamed frustration. There were other reasons the Steelers lost.
There’s no excuse for Pickens’ behavior. He’s in his third NFL season, so he should know how to carry himself. There’s no problem with being aggressive, but at a certain point, it’s better to just walk away or say nothing at all.
It’s easy to see why Arrington believes Pickens is turning into Brown, but it’s not totally fair to make that comparison yet. If Pickens really wants to prove his doubters wrong, he’ll allow his actions to speak louder than his words when the Steelers play the Browns again on Dec. 8.
