The Pittsburgh Steelers are in a sticky situation with wide receiver George Pickens, who has had some behavioral issues on the field recently. And, those issues reportedly extend to off the field, also.
On the heels of Pickens not giving max effort while running routes and sporting an expletive on his eye black on Sunday night, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Pickens has also been late to work on "multiple occasions."
"A source told the Post-Gazette Pickens has shown up late for work on multiple occasions this season," Fittipaldo wrote. "Antonio Brown was notorious for being late, but Tomlin never reduced his snap counts."
The snap count comment is in reference to Pickens seeing a career-low number of snaps against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 5. The former second-round pick played just 34 of a possible 58 snaps in the 20-17 loss. That was fewer than both Calvin Austin and Van Jefferson.
While many assumed this might have been a punishment for Pickens, head coach Mike Tomlin has denied that is the case and instead claimed it's about "snap management," with the goal of getting more productivity from the wideout.
That was a bizarre explanation for a few reasons, though. Pickens played a season-high 60 snaps in Week 4 against the Indianapolis Colts and had his best game of the year, reeling in seven catches for 113 yards. Adding to that, Pittsburgh has a major shortage of wide receiver talent and can ill-afford not to have him on the field.
All of this is adding up to a troublesome situation for the Steelers. Pickens will enter the final year of his rookie deal in 2025 and will likely be looking for an extension, but considering all of the issues, the Steelers may balk at giving him one, which may lead to a standoff next summer.
But there really isn't anything the Steelers can do but ride this situation out. After all, the Steelers need to add a wide receiver and can't afford to subtract Pickens.
