The Pittsburgh Steelers have had their fair share of storylines at the wide receiver position. In recent years, George Pickens dominated many of them.<\/p>\n
He burst onto the scene in his first two years, with 1,140 yards in his second, and seemed on the path to stardom. But his third year was less productive with just 900 yards. With that, plus some locker room concerns, the Steelers didn\u2019t feel comfortable signing him to a large contract extension. As a result, he was traded to Dallas shortly after the draft last offseason.<\/p>\n
Mike Tomlin, one of Pickens\u2019 biggest supporters in Pittsburgh, was part of the decision to jettison him. Thursday on The Rich Eisen show<\/a>, he talked about his experience with Pickens.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they\u2019re developing in the right ways, if they fit your long-range plans, then you do second business with them. It didn\u2019t happen for us with George. But it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean he\u2019s not gonna be a spectacular player,\u201d Tomlin said.<\/p>\n Pickens certainly has become a spectacular player. In his first year as a Cowboy, he shattered his previous career highs with 93 receptions, 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns. Playing opposite CeeDee Lamb and catching passes from Dak Prescott helped him explode statistically.<\/p>\n Yet, the Cowboys haven\u2019t jumped at the chance to secure him for the long haul either. He had his share of times when he was visibly frustrated on sideline last year and was criticized at times for a lack of effort<\/a>. Pickens and Lamb were also both suspended for the first drive in a game against Las Vegas last year for violating team curfew.<\/p>\n Tomlin can\u2019t speak on what\u2019s transpired with Pickens in Dallas. But he did shed some light on where things went wrong in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, I just thought, it\u2019s not only play. It\u2019s development in other areas, intangible areas. I think when you\u2019re a high dollar, second-contract guy, I think there\u2019s some leadership responsibilities, and things of that nature. And I just don\u2019t feel like that was in his natural wheelhouse. We felt better about DK [Metcalf\u2019s]\u2019s abilities in those areas,\u201d Tomlin said.<\/p>\n Pickens is still seeking a long-term contract. After the 2025 season ended, the Cowboys quickly made it known they wanted him back. However, that resolved itself in the form of the franchise tag<\/a>. Dallas tagged him so he wouldn\u2019t reach free agency and did talk with him about a long-term extension shortly after. But those negotiations were cut off<\/a> in late-April.<\/p>\n Pickens isn\u2019t holding out and seems ready to play on the franchise tag. That means 2026 is another massive season for him. If he puts together another fantastic statistical season and can show some more maturity, Dallas or another team may feel comfortable finally giving him a massive extension. If he can\u2019t, thinks will look a bit different for him heading into next offseason.<\/p>\n Mike Tomlin would have hoped George Pickens spent his fourth year in Pittsburgh. Yet, things weren\u2019t stable enough for the Steelers to consider giving him a second contract. His replacement, DK Metcalf, hasn\u2019t quite lived up to his expectations in Pittsburgh, either. But Tomlin shares some insight here on one of his last major moves with the Steelers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have had their fair share of storylines at the wide receiver position. In recent years,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[35777,17666,1232,62,149074,939,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1041904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-george-pickens","tag-mike-tomlin","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-the-rich-eisen-show","tag-trending","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117210191326776923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}