George Pickens, Jaylen Warren Meet to Squash Effort Concerns

Steelers running back Jaylen Warren and wide receiver George Pickens have met to discuss over Pickens’ lack of blocking effort during Warren’s run inside the five-yard line against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday. Earlier this week, Pickens said that he was trying to avoid an injury. Meanwhile, Warren responded critically when speaking to the media.

“Some people play the game differently,” Warren said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “If I was in that position, I would have blocked for him. But we play differently, so.”

Warren did say that he understands where Pickens is coming from there. No one wants to get hurt, that’s obvious. But football is a violent game where that can happen at any point.

“I see where he’s coming from,” Warren said. “It is what it is. At the end of the day, he was doing what he thought was best for him.”

Pickens was immediately ripped by the rest of the media that wasn’t already, including many former football players. That led to an entire week of discourse that is still ongoing, so much so that it feels like the talk of the Bengals coming to town has become one of the quieter stories this week. On the Sick Podcast’s Jaylen Warren Show, Warren talked about how he and Pickens squashed any resentment.

“I don’t really get frustrated because it’s out of my control,” Warren said. “Just thinking like that will pour more fuel on the fire. But yeah, we talked about how the media tries to bash us together and trying to create this whole scene. But it’s nothing like that. He understands my point of view, the team’s point of view. He understands what’s going on. Next time, he says that he’ll block (for me).”

That leaves the Steelers in a place where they can hopefully move on from this, and Pickens can showcase the improvement that Mike Tomlin wants to see. During his meeting with the media on Wednesday, Tomlin stated he would not bench Pickens but would like to see his maturity improve.

“And part of it is education, and I want him to understand that as well,” Tomlin said. “When you’re winning and doing your jobs, man, a lot of attention and so forth is on things such as that. When you’re not doing the job and losing, you better keep your damn mouth shut and understand that that attracts a certain type of attention as well–and usually that’s a vulture-like attention.”

Tomlin did say that there could be a punishment, but not one that he will share publicly. Instead, they want to utilize his talents to allow him to grow within the system. But that maturity, at some point, has to come as Tomlin continues talking to him about his wrongdoings.