Steelers wide receiver George Pickens has been highly criticized for his poor showing in Pittsburgh’s Week 5 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football.”
The third-year wide receiver wore black eye tape that read “Open (expletive) Always,” showed very little effort during his route-running on several occasions and pulled the face mask of Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis as the clock hit zero.
To cap it all off, Pickens finished the game with just three catches for a season-low 26 yards.
That’s not the type of production the Steelers likely imagined they’d be getting from their No. 1 wide receiver, but tight end Pat Freiermuth doesn’t seem ready to give up on him quite yet.
“You just got to be there for him as much as you can. Understand where he’s coming from. It’s not out of a bad place. He obviously wants to help us win as much as he can, and he’s a great talent,” Freiermuth said. “But at the end of the day, he also has to understand this is a team sport, and he does. We’ve talked about that.”
Freiermuth may just be thinking what everybody else is: If Pittsburgh were to move on from Pickens, it would be left with a wide receiver room that has combined for just 19 catches for 233 yards.
Pickens is becoming more and more of a distraction, but he has 23 catches for 310 yards alone this season.
So it may just be that the Steelers are buying time until they can add to the room and then part with Pickens. That would make sense given the offense’s start to the year.
Through the first five weeks of the season, Pittsburgh is averaging the seventh-fewest points per game (18.4) and 10th-fewest total yards per game (299.4) in the league.
“We’re not where we want to be on offense yet, but the plays are there. You can see it on film,” Freiermuth said. “We just have to cut the negative plays out on our end. We understand that and we’re going to continue to keep working.”
Freiermuth remains confident that the Steelers offense will eventually hit its stride, but it’s not difficult to argue that those numbers would likely be even worse without Pickens.
If things did reach a point in which Pittsburgh viewed trading Pickens as an addition by subtraction, Freiermuth would likely be asked to do more. That’s not something he’s opposed to.
“That’s for them to decide,” Freiermuth explained. “I’m very confident in what they have me doing, and if they want to put more on my plate, obviously welcoming that. I’m here for the get better and here for the team.”
Only time will tell what the Steelers decide to do with Pickens, but this isn’t the first time they’ve dealt with a wide receiver with a big personality.
In the meantime, Pittsburgh will hope to see a better version of Pickens when it goes on the road to face the Las Vegas Raiders (2-3) in Week 6. Perhaps he can even learn a thing or two from Freiermuth.
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