George Pickens has been gone for months , but the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to be at the front of his mind.
With the Dallas Cowboys fully embedded in camp, Pickens held a presser, and it wasn't short on bulletin board material for OC Arthur Smith...
"Yea I'm definitely excited to run better plays, for sure, yea," said Pickens when asked if he was looking to show that he's more than a contested catch player.
“I’m definitely excited to run better plays.”
— Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) July 23, 2025
This was George Pickens response when I asked him about expanding his route tree in Dallas and doing more than being a deep ball contested catch guy as he was known in Pittsburgh
Pickens lambasted the Steelers offense pic.twitter.com/hQnJGmcJZn
Is it true that Pickens was a player who primarily ran routes on a vertical plane? You know posts, corners, go routes, and things of that nature. Yes, it is true. Can he run more than those routes? His workouts suggest he can. But the limitation on what he ran wasn't because of the Steelers it was because of him.
How could Arthur Smith trust someone like Pickens, who can't even show up to offensive meetings on time, to fully ingratiate himself in the offense and run a diverse route tree that targets the middle of the field?
Oh that's right. He couldn't.
And let's be honest, Pickens isn't going to suddenly start running routes and having plays schemed for him that attack the middle of the field. That's what CeeDee Lamb is for. The Cowboys traded for Pickens to do exactly what he did in Pittsburgh, only he's playing second fiddle instead of headlining.
So while the shots keep coming from Pickens, and I'm sure there will be more, the Steelers are welcoming a new culture. One that doesn't have the headaches like Pickens and Diontae Johnson. One that doesn't worry about having to babysit their star players.
We'll see who ends up looking right when it's all set and done.
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