{"id":23433,"date":"2025-05-04T15:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23433\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T15:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:40:10","slug":"has-not-gone-well-behind-the-scenes-insider-believes-george-pickens-time-is-limited-with-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23433\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Has Not Gone Well Behind The Scenes’: Insider Believes George Pickens’ Time ‘Is Limited’ With Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the top storylines to watch leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft was whether or not the Pittsburgh Steelers would trade George Pickens or select a wide receiver high in the draft to leave their options open leading up to the season. Neither of those two things happened, but it doesn\u2019t sound like it\u2019s been smooth sailing behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis time in Pittsburgh, in a lot of people\u2019s minds, is limited,\u201d NFL insider James Palmer said in a video posted on Bleacher Report\u2019s feed<\/a>. \u201c\u2026It has not gone well behind the scenes at all between George Pickens and the Pittsburgh Steelers and everybody involved. And this is leading up to, could he play for them in 2025? Certainly could. Would he be departing after the season? Yes, in a lot of people\u2019s minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickens\u2019 long-term future in Pittsburgh was sealed when they traded for DK Metcalf and gave him a new contract worth $33 million per season in new money<\/a>. The chances of the Steelers giving another expensive contract to a receiver is already slim. Those chances seem especially slim for a receiver like Pickens who\u2019s had maturity issues on and off the field.<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to the draft, it seemed like things were spiraling towards a trade. The Dallas Cowboys were among multiple teams who reached out about Pickens. Jerry Jones even said they had two substantive trades they were working on to be completed either during or after the draft. In the midst of that, at some point over the last month, Pickens unfollowed the Steelers on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No trade happened, but ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler has since reported that Pickens \u201cflirted\u201d with making a formal trade request<\/a> to the Steelers. He also stated that trade talks had cooled and that Pickens wants to be in Pittsburgh, for what it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

Even before the Metcalf trade, there were fears that Pickens could create issues heading into the final year of his rookie contract without a new deal. It wouldn\u2019t be unusual behavior in today\u2019s NFL for that to happen, and Pickens already has a history of creating minor problems. Will he create issues this season as Metcalf takes the WR1 job away from him?<\/p>\n

\u201cAll signs point to a departure of George Pickens at some point before the 2026 season,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cWhether that\u2019s some point between now and the start of the season. I don\u2019t see a trade happening right now. We\u2019ll see\u2026But I think his time is limited there.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have my doubts about what Pickens\u2019 trade value will be at the deadline as a seven-game rental set to become an unrestricted free agent in March, but maybe that ends up being a logical time to part ways. If not, he has a chance at returning a third-round compensatory draft pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

GM Omar Khan sure seemed to imply they plan on having both Pickens and Metcalf<\/a> this upcoming season in his press conference at the NFL owners meeting a few weeks ago, and their actions during the draft backed that up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the top storylines to watch leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft was whether or not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8226,7,467,10799,6,15,57,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-23433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-bleacher-report","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-george-pickens","11":"tag-james-palmer","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-draft","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114450322265449499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}