The Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys have officially finalized a trade to send wide receiver George Pickens out of Pennsylvania in exchange for a third-round pick and a Day 3 pick swap. The deal came as a shock to many, as the timing of it is unusual. Either way, the deal is officially done, and Pittsburgh is preparing for yet another quick search for their receiver room. The front office clearly had enough of his antics and were willing to ship him out the minute they got an offer that they liked.
However, it may have not been all troublesome for the Steelers. Analyst Peter Schrager explained exactly what he has been told from people within the organization while making an appearance on ESPN's Get Up.
"I've talked to the Steelers folks. George Pickens is demonstrative on the field, but he is not an uncoachable player," said Schrager. "In fact, he does have a great way about him in the locker room and is very well liked in Pittsburgh."
There have definitely been some character concerns surrounding Pickens since his days with the Georgia Bulldogs, and that was the risk that the Steelers took when selecting him in the second round. However, those concerns supposedly remained on the field, as opposed to boiling over to the locker room and getting under his teammates' skin.
At the end of the day, Pickens was a competitor, and his outbursts were just reactions to that. The main thing was that he needed to learn to channel his emotions differently. After the 2025 NFL Draft concluded, it seemed like he would get one more chance to prove himself before the trade deadline at least, if not, the very end of his rookie contract.
In 2024, there was a very obvious correlation with Pickens and his outbursts: they happened during or after losses. The only outlier is when he tried to fight a member of the Washington Commanders, and that happened right after quarterback Russell Wilson threw an interception. Everything else can be pinned directly to the team losing.
His questionable eye black came after the team lost to the Indianapolis Colts. While that was definitely a selfish move, there was never any behavior like that after wins. Mason Rudolph even praised Pickens' maturity in a game where he had zero receptions back in the 2023 season. He just has to understand how to handle defeat, and the Steelers were seemingly done trying to teach him that.
There are plenty of other examples of Pickens being a sore loser, like his unnecessary roughness incidents to end contests with the Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns. That clearly did not have too much of a negative toll on the locker room. While fans saw a toxic whiner, his teammates saw a fierce competitor that had absolutely no tolerance for failure, even for himself.
Steelers Have More Questions Than Answers From Trade
Head Coach Mike Tomlin is known for being great at relating to his team and getting through to them. He has dealt with numerous players with questionable personalities, especially at the receiver position. However, these situations usually result in said player getting dealt away for less than what their talent alone is worth, and it happened again with Pickens.
There are two trains of thought with this trade in that regard. First, there is the idea that Pickens is in fact uncoachable. He is a headcase that won't take advice on how to be better mentally. Schrager disputes that theory, which leads to the idea that Tomlin's message is not getting through to some of his players. They hear him, and they can still relate to him well, but his teachings may not be sinking in as well as they used to.
