George Pickens to Jaylen Warren: I’ll Block for You Next Time

Steelers running back Jaylen Warren and wide receiver George Pickens have cleared the air 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.

“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. Warren and Pickens discussed that media presence and how they can not let it drive them apart. 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).”

On Wednesday, some of his teammates and head coach Mike Tomlin joined the chorus, who made a lengthy, unscheduled media appearance to clear up the situation. No one is happy with the offense. It sucks to be on a losing team. But what Pickens is doing can not continue or it will only fester into something much bigger. That might Pickens’ way of protesting, but it’s actively hurting the team the way he goes about it.