The Pittsburgh Steelers dealt WR George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys last week, and Pickens’ attitude seemed to have played a factor in the decision. Former NFL WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh said on the Up On Game podcast that he knows players on the Steelers, and he was told Pickens was often late to the team bus or team plane.
“George Pickens had stepped over and crossed the line a bit too many times and I know people that play with the Steelers. He’d be late for the team plane that would be flying out to away games multiple times. He’d be late to get on the team bus and they had enough of it.
“They didn’t want to pay him 30-plus million dollars and these antics are probably just going to get worse because you’re not even making anywhere near that. You’re doing all this now? What you gonna do when you get the money? And so they said, ‘You know what, we’re gonna get rid of [him]. Dallas, he’s your problem,’ but he’s gonna be a really good problem.”
Pickens was also reportedly late for the team’s Week 17 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, and it sounds like it’s far from the first time that Pickens’ tardiness was an issue. While he’s a productive receiver, going over 1,000 yards in 2023 and nearly reaching that mark again in 2024 despite missing three games, Pickens became too much of a headache for the Steelers to want to deal with long-term. With him entering the last year of his rookie deal, the team gets guaranteed value in return for him.
While the trade makes the Steelers worse on paper, team insider Ray Fittipaldo called it “addition by subtraction.” If Pickens’ tardiness and attitude really were an issue that players were sick of, his departure could be beneficial for the locker room. Still, it didn’t seem as if players had much of an issue with Pickens, but his on-field outbursts and apparent chronic tardiness are understandable reasons for the team to move on from the former second-round pick.
It was interesting timing with the trade coming after the 2025 NFL Draft, but the Steelers like what they have behind George Pickens at receiver and expect their room to still be better than last year with DK Metcalf now in the fold, taking over the No. 1 receiver role Pickens had last year. While the trade may make the Steelers’ receiving corps worse off, it also eliminates a distraction, which could be a positive for the collective.
