The Steelers don’t appear to have any plans to trade WR George Pickens, but they still need to manage him. Even if he may only have one more season in Pittsburgh, they have to get through 2025. Recently appearing on the Kaboly + Mack podcast, former Steelers OC Todd Haley shared his thoughts.
“I don’t know George [Pickens] other than watching him play,” Haley prefaced his comments. “My philosophy as a coach, if you’re asking, is, ‘This is the way we’re doing it. If it’s not done that way, you’re held accountable.’ But that’s all coaches, especially good coaches.”
That wasn’t a shot at Tomlin, but he has a reputation for letting bad behavior slide, at least publicly, for star players. Behind the scenes, the Steelers’ head coach has reportedly fined Pickens plenty while publicly backing him—usually. On multiple occasions, he has called out the receiver’s maturity, urging him to “grow up in a hurry.”
Haley coached the Steelers’ offense through an interesting time, a transition at wide receiver. He initially inherited the Young Money Crew of Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antonio Brown. Not long after, it was just Brown left as part of the Killer Bs. The Steelers’ offense, in which George Pickens is a part, doesn’t really seem to have an identity, at least currently.
But they certainly have some personalities in their wide receiver room. While Pickens is the Steelers’ prime example, they also traded for DK Metcalf. That trade likely signals an intention to move on from Pickens after this season. But once again, they want him for this season, so they have to manage him through the year.
“If a coach can handle that particular room without compromising his beliefs as a coach, you’ve done a good job, and it’s gonna help you develop in other areas as a coach,” Haley said as a former wide receivers coach. That’s partly why he was asked about how the Steelers should approach George Pickens.
“This guy is really talented,” the former Steelers head coach said of Pickens. “Do I see some things at times that frustrate me as a former receiver coach? Absolutely. But that’s up to the coaches to make it work. Not just me, but Mike Tomlin, Ben [Roethlisberger], we made AB [Antonio Brown] work.”
Many believe that managing Pickens is the principal reason the Steelers hired Zach Azzanni as wide receiver coach. They had strict fundamentalists in Richard Mann and then Daryl Drake, but Ike Hilliard and Frisman Jackson didn’t quite measure up. Azzanni has a tougher mentality, and at times, Pickens seemed to have responded well.
Of course, that wasn’t always the case, such as when he declared himself “Open Fucking Always”. From the outside, the issue is that we only see what Mike Tomlin wants to project. We don’t see how the Steelers actually handle him behind the scenes. As a result, we can only speculate about what they may or may not be doing, or should be doing.
