Pittsburgh Steelers teammates of George Pickens were surprised the team moved Pickens. In a video released by Prospect Media, linebacker Payton Wilson and cornerback Beanie Bishop discussed the trade of Pickens.
Bishop says he saw the trade on his way to the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex when the report was blasted out early in the morning. He says he will stay in his lane and just do his job.
“Where I’m at, I play ball,” Bishop said. “I try to do my job.”
Wilson has some thoughts on it, though. He understands what the Steelers were trying to do with the move: accumulating more picks for next year to either help the team move up for a quarterback or grab another difference-maker.
“The front office isn’t just making moves for this year,” Wilson said. “That’s what I had to learn. They’re really trying to stack year on top of year. Obviously, us being in it, we’re trying to win a Super Bowl every single year. But it’s probably a little different for the front office. They made this trade, ‘okay, we can set up this pick this year, this pick this year.’ Obviously, I have no clue what I’m talking about. But that’s just my way to look at it.”
The Athletic reported that Pickens was 40 minutes late to the team’s Christmas Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs, which was after the inactives were released. Pickens was returning from a hamstring injury and was supposed to test the injury pregame.
The second-round pick of the Steelers in the 2022 NFL Draft, both he and Kenny Pickett, the team’s first two picks from that draft, never finished their rookie contracts with the team.
Pickens missed three games with a hamstring injury, dampening what looked to be a second-straight 1000-yard season with the third-year wide receiver.
He averaged 15.3 yards per reception with 59 receptions for 900 yards on the year. In each of the last two seasons, Pickens has eclipsed 15 yards per catch and 900 yards as the focus of the team’s passing offense.