This season, it feels like George Pickens has as many boneheaded moments as he does unreal plays. He’s taken his game to another level as the number-one receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That hasn’t resulted in him being more mature, though. Against the Cincinnati Bengals, he got called for two unnecessary penalties. However, analyst Patrick Claybon believes Pickens’ actions weren’t that bad.
“On the Pickens’ bananas index, though, this game was about a three,” Claybon said Monday on NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal. “Considering the no-call that led to the pick-six, he gets hit for a taunting call, which I’m still looking for the first good taunting call in NFL history, and then he got finger guns on another one. He didn’t come off the top rope and hit anybody. A relatively calm Pickens game.”
It’s tough to say that Pickens was completely calm against the Bengals. Claybon might have a problem with the taunting call, but Pickens did toss the ball at a Bengals defender. Although it wasn’t anything crazy, he still didn’t need to do that.
The finger guns call wasn’t a great look either. After the game, Pickens stated that the officials misunderstood his gesture. Still, there was no need to even be in that situation in the first place.
However, Claybon is correct that neither of those things is even close to the worst things Pickens has done this year. Even just a few weeks ago, Pickens ended the game by fighting a Cleveland Browns defender. Then, he made some insulting comments about the Browns after the game. Overall, Pickens created drama when there didn’t need to be any.
That wasn’t the only altercation Pickens got into this season, either. In Week 5, Pickens ended the game against the Dallas Cowboys by yanking a defender down by their facemask. He also put an explicit message on his face in eye black. Those issues were magnified in a loss, and it was not a fun week to be Pickens.
Safe to say, those two penalties against the Bengals aren’t the worst things Pickens has done. However, the problem is that his issues are starting to pile up. The fact that he’s been caught up in worse drama this year shouldn’t excuse him for hurting the team. Eventually, penalties like that will cost the Steelers.
At this point, Pickens has a history of these kinds of actions. In a vacuum, what he did in Week 13 wasn’t awful. However, it’s another example of his immaturity in the grand scheme of things. Mike Tomlin made it clear Pickens needs to change his ways. We’ll see if that message resonates with him going forward.
