Pittsburgh Steelers’ Head Coach Mike Tomlin held his weekly press conference today – obviously – with the team scheduled to play in Baltimore on Saturday. Tomlin hit on the usual things we’ve heard before, especially in recent weeks, about failures on both sides of the ball etc, etc. But when the questions came from beat writers, he missed an incredible opportunity to address George Pickens and failed miserably in doing so.
ESPN’s Steelers’ Beat Writer Brooke Pryor asked Tomlin about Pickens being held back by Pat Freiermuth as he appeared to be jawing back and forth with fans during the game. Tomlin’s response?
“That’s news to me. If I commented on it, I’d be speculating.”
Seriously Coach? You expect any of us with a shred of knowledge about football to buy that? Football coaches are notorious for having their finger on the pulse of their team all the time. If a player passes gas in the weight room the head coach knows. So when the star wide receiver is more focused on smack-talking fans than he is in paying attention to the game we are supposed to believe you knew nothing about it?
Come on Mike.
What’s more worrisome to me though is that Tomlin wasted a teachable moment here. He could have taken Pickens to task with far more than just a “he needs to grow up” comment. I’m not suggesting that Tomlin didn’t take this opportunity in private to address Pickens but here’s the problem with that; it’s not working!
Just as all people have unique differences between them, players often require different types of disciplinary approaches. It’s no secret that Pickens has been enabled and coddled often throughout his athletic career. Scouts knew it, NFL teams knew it and Mike Tomlin knew it when he drafted him. Therefore, if the one-on-one approach isn’t getting through to the young man then perhaps a different tack is in order.
Instead, Tomlin brushed it off. He wanted it to be a ‘throwaway’ comment and make it a non-issue but that’s not happening. We were told several years ago in regards to another star wideout, Antonio Brown, that once the problems outweigh the production, you move on. There’s zero question that this offense has to have Pickens and his dynamic abilities, but one catch for one yard and three drops? Maybe it’s “time to move on.”
It could be that Tomlin answered Pryor the way he did because he’s given up, feeling there’s nothing more that he can do. Getting Pickens re-focused may no longer be possible but we’ve known Mike Tomlin too long to buy that. He just doesn’t want to play it out in public and I respect that but Tomlin could have sent a message today.
He could have put Pickens on blast and put the ball in his court to see how he would respond. Instead, we’ll get more of the same this week and more of the same isn’t working.
