PITTSBURGH — Steelers wide receiver George Pickens addressed a situation that came up on Sunday night. After the beating by the 49ers on Sunday afternoon, Pickens liked a comment under an Instagram post that noted,“nobody to get that man the ball tho.”
George Pickens is unsure how any of that happened, given his settings on his Instagram account. He shrugged it off as a nonissue, essentially stating the like has nothing to do with him or what Kenny Pickett showed on Sunday.
“I saw that, but my comments aren’t even on, on my Instagram,” Pickens said. “I don’t even know how that happened. Somebody screenshotted it or added it or so. But you can’t even tag me. I don’t have any comments on my Instagram. You can’t mention me or tag me.”
None of that concerns him liking the comment under the post. If you go to the post that the like is supposedly on, not only are the comments under that post from Pickens but as you can see, his Instagram account is named 1.Issue likes the post claimed last night.
All that means is that his account clearly did like that post, whether you believe Pickens or not. It’s OK to have some passion after a loss like that, even still. Pickens is an emotional player who wears his heart on his sleeve. That is the type of player he has proven himself to be, and the Steelers have gone through this before.
Matt Canada expanded George Pickens’ route tree, which became evident throughout training camp and this game. But the 49ers played so far off in man coverage that Pickett decided never to rip it deep toward Pickens. The one time he did, Pickens nearly made yet another alien-like catch near the sideline.
Back in 2022, when Pickens had an outburst on the sideline against the Atlanta Falcons due to a lack of targets, Diontae Johnson had to calm him down on the sideline. But Mike Tomlin did not view his passion as a negative.
“I’d rather say whoa than sic ’em,” Tomlin said. “I want a guy that wants to be a significant part of what we do. Now, the appropriate and professional and mature way to express it, is that we’re working on and that will continue.”
Pickens’ response to that was plenty of receivers in the past did the same thing. He’s not wrong in that regard. Pittsburgh probably does need to give Pickens at least one deep ball target a quarter. It just makes sense from the standpoint of the offense. When they want to create explosive plays, Pickens is their best option to do that. But they did not give him many chances to do that on Sunday, and it seems he is frustrated by that fact.
Alan Saunders contributed to reporting from Pittsburgh.
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