With Mike Tomlin entering his 19th season as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, it shouldn’t be any surprise that he has his fingerprints on just about every decision that is made within the organization. While Kevin Colbert’s GM tenure predated Tomlin, Omar Khan is just a few years into that role. If you had any doubts about who was pushing for WR George Pickens to be traded, one insider is very certain that Tomlin was the driving force.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette insider Gerry Dulac was asked this morning via his weekly Steelers chat if Tomlin wanted to keep Pickens but was overruled by Khan and Art Rooney II.
“He was behind it and all-in on it,” Dulac wrote. “He’s the coach. He makes the roster decisions. Rooney can intervene if he so chooses.”
The first public address from a Steelers decision maker after the trade was by Khan. He spoke to the media and stated that a fresh start was the right move for both sides. When Tomlin spoke to the media, he deferred to Khan and seconded the idea that it was best for all parties involved.
It was Tomlin, after all, who publicly said Pickens needed to grow up in a hurry after one of his post-snap penalties during a game last season. While Tomlin usually shies away from fueling the media flames, that statement in early December was an omen of things to come.
Not only did the Steelers trade for DK Metcalf and give him the big-money extension that Pickens otherwise could have been due, but they eventually traded Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 pick swap in the late rounds.
Beyond the on-field issues, Pickens was late for practices and games, and he wasn’t showing any signs of maturing after three years in the organization. There is no telling how much went on behind the scenes that the public isn’t privy to. Dulac reported earlier in the week that there were a “litany of violations,” even some that went undetected by the coaching staff at times.
The Steelers wouldn’t have made this impactful of a trade had Tomlin not signed off on it. Dulac went a step further and suggested he not only signed off on it but was behind the idea in the first place.
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