Throughout George Pickens’ highlight and headache-filled tenure in Pittsburgh, it would be hard to find a more staunch defender of the wide receiver than Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
During Pickens’ rookie season, after the receiver threw a tantrum because he wasn’t getting the ball during a win in Atlanta, Tomlin reframed it as an emotional player who wanted to be part of the game plan. When Pickens failed to block for Jaylen Warren near the goal line in 2023, citing his fear of being injured, Tomlin tried to deflect the blame onto the media, calling them “vulture-like.”
Last season, when Pickens wore eye black that read “Open F—ing Always” in a game against the Dallas Cowboys, Tomlin maintained two days later that he didn’t see it. Asked why Pickens played a career-low 34 snaps and ran a career-low 20 routes in that game, Tomlin refused to acknowledge it was a benching and instead called it “snap management.” And when Pickens got into a wrestling match with Cleveland Browns defensive back Greg Newsome at the end of a loss in Cleveland, Tomlin again said he wasn’t aware of the incident.
Pickens’ antics continued through the regular-season finale, when tight end Pat Freiermuth had to hold back the receiver, who was arguing with fans.
But after deflecting often — and at other times, perhaps stretching the truth on Pickens’ behalf — even Tomlin’s patience appeared to be running thin by the end of the 2024 season. It reached an inflection point in Week 13 in Cincinnati. Pickens was flagged twice for unsportsmanlike conduct — one for making a gun gesture and another for dropping a ball on a Bengals defender. For one of the first times publicly, Tomlin reprimanded his star receiver.
“He’s got to grow up,” the coach said. “He’s got to grow up in a hurry.”
In that moment, you had to ask yourself: If Pickens had been in the league for nearly three years and hadn’t grown up, would he ever? Before the next game in which Pickens was active, we got the answer.
After the Cincinnati win, Pickens missed three games with a hamstring injury. Back in action for the first time since Tomlin’s comments, Pickens showed up 40 minutes late for the Christmas Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs. This was after the list of inactive players was released. When several teammates were asked about Pickens’ tardiness, they brushed it off as a regular occurrence.
That sure doesn’t sound like a player who got the coach’s message, does it?
While speculation about a potential trade has swirled throughout the offseason and picked up steam after the Steelers acquired DK Metcalf, general manager Omar Khan said repeatedly that he wanted to keep both big-play weapons on board for 2025. It now seems he was trying to maintain as much leverage as possible and was well aware that the Pickens experiment had met its expiration date.
After shopping Pickens during draft week, Khan pulled off the second significant receiver trade of the offseason on Wednesday when he dealt Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick to the Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-rounder.
While the trade unquestionably makes the roster worse in 2025, this was a necessary and perhaps inevitable move.
The biggest factor was the timing. Whether the Steelers liked it or not, the Pickens situation was reaching a crossroads as the mercurial receiver entered the fourth and final year of his rookie deal. The Steelers typically love to lock up productive players before they can hit the open market, but signing Pickens to a long-term agreement this offseason would have been a mistake. They have learned the hard way with receivers like Antonio Brown that money doesn’t fix these problems — it only makes them worse.
Khan was wise to acquire Metcalf, giving himself the necessary flexibility to pivot, essentially giving the big-money deal to an outside option instead of the known headache.
Many in Pittsburgh have argued the Steelers could have ridden out the 2025 season with both receivers and hoped Pickens stayed on track during a contract year. There are two problems with that path: First, if a coach like Tomlin, who is known for reaching problematic players, couldn’t get through to Pickens in three years, he was never going to. There were many times when Pickens’ personality was counterproductive to winning.
Sure, it might be easy from the outside to see Pickens’ immense talent and “SportsCenter” Top 10-worthy catches and be frustrated with the trade. But behind the scenes, players were the ones getting frustrated. Consider the time and emotional energy it took from players, coaches and staffers just to get a 24-year-old professional athlete to play a football game.
“We all know who the problem is,” one offensive player said following the loss against Dallas, when Pickens sported the controversial eye black and was quietly benched.
Secondly, and more importantly, the Steelers didn’t hold the cards. Just a few years ago, Diontae Johnson was entering the final year of his rookie deal. He held in during training camp to force the Steelers to sign him to an extension. This kind of behavior is common in a booming market for receivers. Just last year, Brandon Aiyuk was in a similar circumstance, holding in and asking for a trade (he was nearly sent to Pittsburgh) before signing an extension with the 49ers.
Pickens, who doesn’t seem to care about fines eating into his salary, could have easily followed the same playbook. If he held out or held in, the Steelers would have been in a messy, uncertain situation. Meanwhile, Pickens’ value would have plummeted. By trading Pickens now, the Steelers might have maximized the trade return and can now move on fully without distractions. That more teams weren’t lining up or offering more shows that the rest of the league had concerns about adding a player like Pickens.
Now look: In the short term, there will be growing pains from this decision, especially for a receiver room that was thin last year and is now thin once again. The Steelers carried five receivers last season. The top five candidates on the roster are Metcalf, Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson, Robert Woods and Ben Skowronek. Scotty Miller and a handful of undrafted free agents could also be in that conversation. Aside from Metcalf, there are a lot of unknowns in that group.
If the Steelers want to upgrade on the open market, the available options in free agency all come with question marks. Recently released Gabe Davis might be near the top of the list of possibilities. Other veteran free agents include Amari Cooper, Nelson Agholor, Odell Beckham Jr. and Tyler Boyd. There are also trade candidates, especially one of Aaron Rodgers’ preferred targets, Allen Lazard.
No one should be fooled into thinking any of these options will come close to matching Pickens’ potential. And that’s fine. If the Steelers were legitimate Super Bowl contenders this season, maybe it would make sense to take a gamble and hope Pickens would show up and play well in his contract year. But they’re not, even if Rodgers signs.
If the Steelers are honest with themselves, the goal of the 2025 season shouldn’t be to put together a faux contender. Too often, they have looked for short-term solutions only to fight and claw their way to a nine- or 10-win season that ends in the first round of the playoffs. The only way to get out of football purgatory is to think broader.
To his credit, it appears Khan is willing to take this more patient, long-term approach. In the draft, he’s been loading up on offensive and defensive linemen while passing on polarizing, young QBs. With a projected 12 draft picks in 2026 (including trades and compensatory picks), the Steelers now have plenty of draft capital to move up and land their future franchise QB next season. By adding another third-round pick, they should also have opportunities in the draft and via trade to surround that QB with weapons.
Done right, the Steelers will have maximized the compensation from a Pickens trade and positioned themselves better for long-term success in 2026 and beyond. Although there might be short-term discomfort in 2025, a long-term plan aimed at making noise in the postseason in 2026 and beyond is a sound process. I’d be willing to defend that as staunchly as Tomlin defended Pickens in the past.
(Photo: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)