With George Pickens potentially missing more time due to a hamstring injury, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to need the rest of their wide receivers to step up. They did a fine job against the Cleveland Browns, but they’re going to need to build on that performance going forward. Mike Williams is one player poised to become more involved due to Pickens’ absence. And Mike Tomlin believes that will be the case, regardless of Pickens’ status.
“No question,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference via the team’s YouTube channel. “I felt like he did last week. As I mentioned last week, I view it only as a matter of time before his presence gets felt in a more consistent way in-stadium. Practice has been like that for a number of weeks, and usually, when you see people making plays in practice, it’s a precursor to them making plays in-stadium.
“George available or not, I expect the overall trajectory of his performance and inclusion to be on the incline.”
Williams did see an uptick in play Sunday with Pickens out. Aside from his lone touchdown catch in his first game with the Steelers, Williams had been absent as a contributor. It was beginning to seem strange, even though Tomlin said that Williams would become more involved eventually. The Pickens injury may have just accelerated the process.
Williams didn’t have a huge role against the Browns as he and Scotty Miller seemed to share the burden of replacing Pickens. That’s slightly odd, considering Williams’ size and skill set should make him a better substitute for Pickens.
He did display that talent against the Browns. Although he was called for offensive pass interference on his first chance at a deep shot, he redeemed himself later. He caught a huge pass late in the third quarter on third down. That helped the Steelers extend their drive and score their final touchdown of the game.
At this point, the Steelers are running out of time to ramp up Williams’ contributions to their offense. They only have four regular-season games left. Pickens is likely to miss Sunday’s game in Philadelphia, and potentially more time, so Williams’ inclusion needs to be on the incline.
They traded for him for this reason. Adding him was supposed to allow the Steelers to not need to rely on Pickens so much in their passing game. All of that responsibility doesn’t fall on him, but Williams should see more than his fair share of those downfield moon balls Pickens received. Tomlin seems confident in him so this could be the perfect time to really unleash Wiliams’ full capabilities.
