George Pickens’ immaturity— both on and off the field—was never much of a secret. But now that he’s been traded to the Dallas Cowboys, the full scope of those issues is coming into focus. In trading him, the Pittsburgh Steelers willingly made their 2025 roster less talented. As new reports emerge, the reasoning behind that decision is starting to make sense.
According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac the situation was even worse behind closed doors than anybody realized.
“It was so bad that they made the move right now and didn’t even wait till later,” Dulac said via 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “The litany of violations apparently were endless. I remember one of the players telling me last year during the season that the people internally don’t even realize half the violations that he commits.”
It sounds like several things went undetected or unreported as the Steelers always seek to avoid unnecessary distractions. It’s always preferred to keep things behind closed doors and deal with them internally because the media can intensify issues with players. Especially players who monitor and reply to what is being said about them online.
Here are just some of the known issues with Pickens over his three seasons with the team. On the field, Pickens had effort issues like failing to block for Jaylen Warren near the goal line, taking plays off, or running the wrong routes at times. He also had a handful of inexcusable post-play penalties that hurt the team.
Off the field, he reportedly showed up late for meetings and even games. The most drastic example of that was on Christmas Day when he had previously been inactive with an injury. He showed up after the inactive list was announced in a game where the Steelers probably needed to test his injury in warmups. He was able to play, but he could have really put the team in a bad situation if they had him active and he was unable to play.
Dulac indicates that this was just the tip of the iceberg for Pickens’ long list of violations.
“The players, they see that, they’re not gonna tolerate that. If the coaches and management don’t do something about it, then they lose respect for them,” Dulac said. “Mike Tomlin makes all roster decisions and the only way he doesn’t is if Art Rooney trumps him and says no, that’s not going to happen. But Mike Tomlin had had enough…It just goes to show you how big a problem it had become that they thought they don’t even wanna start the season with the guy.”
Mark Kaboly reported that certain veteran players were fed up with Pickens, which was a part of the decision to move on from him.
Omar Khan told the media they wouldn’t have made the trade if they weren’t comfortable with their current group of receivers while also leaving the door open to potentially adding another piece. The Steelers wouldn’t have put themselves in the same difficult situation in their WR room as last season if they thought Pickens was manageable.
Khan, in the most political way possible, deemed it a necessary fresh start for both sides. Addition by subtraction is a vague concept that is tough to measure, but it sounds fitting in this case for the Steelers with George Pickens.
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