The Pittsburgh Steelers dealt with a lot of problems offensively in 2024. Part of the reason for that is their lack of talent at the receiver position, aside from George Pickens. Pittsburgh didn’t have another player on offense who could actually put fear in opposing defenses. Even Pickens, who has all of the raw talent in the world, had his own struggles at times, both on and off the field, in 2024.
However, one person thinks we’re going see a more behaved version of Pickens in 2025. That would be former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson.
“That I don’t like,” Johnson said Wednesday of George Pickens’ behavior issues, via the Nightcap podcast. “And we done talked. We done had that conversation. I guarantee you won’t have no problems out of him anymore. Mike Tomlin, you gone see this. The Rooneys, y’all gone see this. I guarantee you, you won’t have no problems no more.”
Johnson has regularly defended Pickens, so his sentiment here is nothing new. What’s most interesting about this is the fact that Johnson claims he’s spoken to Pickens recently.
Earlier in the year, the Steelers ran the Bengals out of their own stadium. While there were a lot of things for Steelers fans to be happy about during that performance, Pickens did have some tough moments. He had two penalties, one being a taunting foul and the other unsportsmanlike conduct.
After that game, Johnson claimed he was going to give Pickens a call. He wanted to help Pickens channel some of his energy into his play rather than allow his frustration to build. “Embrace being the villain,” Johnson said at the time. Johnson did share one aspect of the call.
“I don’t wanna sit here and talk about what we talked about,” Johnson said. “But I told him, ‘Listen, that window of opportunity, boy that b—- shrink real fast now. It don’t matter how good you are. They will tolerate you until they can replace you.'”
Tolerating Pickens until they can replace him is exactly what the Steelers are doing right now. There are reasons to be fed up with the star, but Pittsburgh simply can’t afford to move on from him with no other proven talent at the position.
All things considered, though, Johnson might be the perfect person to give Pickens advice. There are a lot of similarities between the two. Johnson had a ton of personality, like Pickens, but he was able to channel that into motivation on the field, and as he would put it, he “embraced being the villain.” If Pickins can follow that formula, his game could evolve into even more than we’ve seen.
