The Pittsburgh Steelers finally started throwing to Mike Williams but only in light of an injury to George Pickens. With the probability of Pickens missing more time, former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger believes the Steelers need to lean on Williams during this time.
Roethlisberger talked about the Steelers’ predicament without Pickens on the DVE Morning Show. Posed the scenario of playing with Van Jefferson and Scotty Miller and Ben Skowronek as his options and what he would do, he said, “Ask Coach [Mike Williams] ‘Where’s Mike Williams’”?
Even with George Pickens, the Steelers spent the offseason hunting for another receiver, landing on Mike Williams shortly before the trade deadline. He caught a deep game-winning pass in his Steelers debut but had not seen another target before last week. Against the Browns, Williams caught three passes on four targets for 36 yards. He also had a deep completion negated by an offensive pass inference penalty, with which he disagreed.
Since Williams is a big guy who plays vertically, Ben Roethlisberger was surprised the Steelers didn’t attack down the field. “I was screaming at our offense because the safety most of the game was like, eight, nine yards deep. I’m like, ‘Take a shot! Somebody, come on’”! he said. Pickens and other receivers are also capable deep threats, and they did hit on some vertical balls.
One Tuesday, Steelers HC Mike Tomlin admitted that George Pickens’ hamstring is worse than initially thought. At the same time, he also told reporters to keep watching when it came to Mike Williams seeing more opportunities.
But is that a general observation of Williams’ trajectory since joining the Steelers or a consequence of Pickens’ absence? Either way, Roethlisberger believes the Steelers need Williams to bridge the gap until Pickens returns.
“I thought going into this game, ‘Okay, with George down, this will be a great opportunity for the [Steelers] to really see Mike Williams’”, Roethlisberger said. “Let’s get him in there and really develop into what I think they need, [which] is a No. 2. They took a couple shots, but not as much as I thought they would have or should have”.
Sunday was the first time the Steelers played without George Pickens since they drafted him in 2022. He had played every game of his career up to that point and was expected to play until shortly before kickoff. A day after the game, the Steelers further evaluated his injury and found he could miss more time.
It resulted in the first game Russell Wilson threw for under 195 yards with the Steelers, which is surely no coincidence. After all, he threw for 270 yards against the same defense on the road two weeks earlier. The difference is the Steelers had a healthy George Pickens, even if they weren’t using Mike Williams then, either.
