PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers receiver George Pickens made a statement on “Sunday Night Football,” when he sported an eye black sticker that read: “OPEN F—ING ALWAYS.”
The message made waves on social media. The NBC cameras zoomed in on Pickens’ face. Countless blogs and media outlets wrote stories about it. Radio stations had a field day. By Tuesday, just about everyone in the football-loving world had seen it and formed some type of opinion on the matter.
Well, everyone except his head coach, Mike Tomlin.
“I don’t know what messaging you’re talking about regarding his eye black,” the coach said Tuesday when asked directly about it.
Maybe I’m just a skeptic, but that seems pretty hard to believe.
Now look, the truth is what Pickens writes on his eye black is not a big deal. Not at all. I don’t care if he has a quote from the Bible, an autograph from Babe Ruth himself or the entire third chapter of “To Kill a Mockingbird” written on his eye black. It really does not matter.
Sure, a league that fines players for wearing the wrong socks on game day probably doesn’t want F-bombs broadcast in prime time and Pickens’ wallet may be a little lighter by the end of the week. But when it comes to actual game results and on-field performance, eye black means absolutely nothing.
Had Pickens played to his outsized potential, scored a couple of touchdowns and racked up a ton of yards, the talk this week would be about how much swagger and confidence he has. We’d be celebrating it the same way the media has gravitated toward Alabama receiver Ryan Williams for writing “KILL EVERYONE” on his eye black.
So really, I have no problem with any fashion choice and you shouldn’t either. The bigger issue was Pickens’ lack of effort on a number of routes, him slamming his helmet to the turf after a rough sequence, sitting by himself on the bench with his head in his hands and on the final play grabbing Dallas Cowboys defender Jourdan Lewis by the face mask as time expired. Pickens finished the game with three catches for 26 yards and appeared visibly frustrated with his usage.
But I started with eye black for a reason. If Tomlin isn’t going to acknowledge he at least was made aware of Pickens’ message, what else isn’t he telling the full truth about? Something like, say, playing time?
On Sunday, a Steelers’ team that’s painfully thin at receiver chose to play Pickens a career-low 34 snaps and asked him to run a career-low 20 routes. Meanwhile, fellow receiver Van Jefferson played 46 snaps and ran 25 routes, while Calvin Austin III posted season highs with 25 routes and 44 snaps. To further put that in perspective, Pickens averaged 49 snaps as a rookie in 2022, 52 as a second-year player in 2023 and 49 snaps per game through the first four games of this season. This is an outlier of all outliers.
After the game, tight end Pat Freiermuth had some cryptic comments when asked about his own lack of targets in the first half.
“Everyone can bitch and complain about a lack of targets but it’s the stuff you do without the ball,” Freiermuth said. “That’s what leaders do. That’s what good teammates do. I block my ass off regardless.”
Let’s call this what it is. I won’t say the Steelers benched Pickens, but it sure seems they sat him down to send a message. What other reasonable justification is there for his usage? There isn’t one. I’d be legitimately much more concerned if the Steelers actually believed that playing Pickens less than Jefferson and Austin gives them the best chance to win.
Yet, Tomlin said after the game the Steelers made a conscious effort to manage Pickens’ total snaps in an effort to get more quality reps when he’s in the game. He doubled down on that narrative during his Tuesday media availability.
“Most players, particularly in today’s game that have specialized skill sets that play positions like receiver, they don’t play every down,” Tomlin said. “They are like rush men. They don’t play every down because you need them in significant moments. You need them at the back half of the season. You need them in the second half of football games and those weighty downs. And so it’s really just a 2024 discussion regarding load management.”
Asked if Pickens has voiced concerned about playing time, Tomlin said, “No, he has not, because it’s been explained to him.”
Separating fact from fiction is always a challenge with a lightning rod receiver like Pickens.
When he came out of college, there were vague reports about character concerns. He told The Athletic during his rookie year that he was suspended for the first half of the 2019 season-finale against Georgia Tech for missing tutoring sessions. Later in the same game, Pickens retaliated against Georgia Tech defensive back Tre Swilling by throwing two punches, grabbing Swilling by the face mask and dragging him into a padded wall behind the end zone.
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At the same time, there are certainly cases when fans and the media are watching Pickens’ every move and almost waiting for him to slip up. Some of the criticism is merited. If we, as the media, are being honest, some of it is not.
Early in Pickens’ career, Tomlin initially pushed back at any question that even hinted at Pickens’ maturity. In the years since, as a handful of incidents have surfaced at the NFL level, Tomlin has changed his tune. That was especially the case last season when Pickens failed to block for Jaylen Warren and then later said that he didn’t want to get hurt.
Over time, Tomlin has been much more willing to acknowledge Pickens is a supremely talented player who could ascend into a star but also needs to grow. He made that much clear again Tuesday.
“Certainly (there are) things that I’m open to addressing and will and do,” Tomlin said. “I just don’t detail it in settings like this, because it’s business between he and I in terms of his growth and development as a player and as a man. I just don’t think it aids that growth and development to address it in open settings such as this.”
And there you have one honest comment you can believe.
Tomlin said earlier this season that, “I can’t give you all the ingredients to the hot dog. You might not like it.”
When it comes to Pickens, it’s clear the recipe is being kept in house, even if the narrative Tomlin is pushing doesn’t taste quite right.
(Top photo: Lauren Leigh Bacho / Getty Images)
