Despite a tricky hamstring injury and condensed schedule, the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t counting out WR George Pickens for what will be a critical Week 16 AFC North showdown against the Baltimore Ravens.
“Grade 2 hamstring, I’m told,” Fowler said during an appearance on SportsCenter. “So likely at least a couple of weeks. They’re hopeful, though, for next week.”
Pickens suffered the injury late last week in the lead-up to the team’s game against the Cleveland Browns. Initially deemed a minor injury with the expectation he would play against Cleveland, the team made a last-second determination that Pickens wouldn’t play. Mike Tomlin later admitted the injury was more “significant” than the team thought, making it fair to question why he practiced in a limited fashion Friday and participated in the team walkthrough Saturday instead of resting and getting an MRI sooner. Along with SS DeShon Elliott and DE Larry Ogunjobi, Pickens won’t play tomorrow versus the Philadelphia Eagles. All three failed to practice this week.
While Fowler notes the Steelers hope for the Ravens’ game, he also mentions Pickens is tracking towards missing a “couple of weeks.” Given the injury occurred nine days ago, being ready for the Baltimore game will be a challenge. Making it even harder will be the tight schedule. After playing the Eagles on Sunday, Pittsburgh travels to Baltimore for a Saturday game. That stems from the NFL putting the Steelers on Christmas Day, a Wednesday, and in order to have enough time between games, the league chose the Saturday-Wednesday approach, equating it to a Sunday-Thursday turnaround.
It means the Steelers will play three games in 11 days, a tough way to end the year Mike Tomlin clearly isn’t pleased with. It also makes it that much more difficult for Pickens to heal, practice, and be cleared for any of those games. Pittsburgh’s optimism has already been proven wrong, as he went from believing he’d play against the Browns to now missing his second game.
“It’s going to be a lot of the two running backs, Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren,” Fowler said of the team’s plan without Pickens. “Going to be a lot of two tight end sets. Pat Freiermuth, get creative. Van Jefferson, veteran wide receiver, will have to step up.”
As important as Pickens would be for the Ravens-Steelers rematch, catching a team-high eight passes in their first meeting, having him ready for playoffs is more important. Pickens sitting out until the regular season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals is the most likely outcome right now.
