Steelers’ George Pickens Disses Own Team After Playoff Collapse vs Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens eliminated the Pittsburgh Steelers from the playoffs Saturday night. After the game, Steelers wide receiver George Pickens did his best to eliminate any hope Steelers fans may have had for the future.

Following the 28-14 loss to division archrival Baltimore, a loss that looked a lot worse than the scoreboard suggests, given the Ravens ran for 300 yards against Pittsburgh’s supposedly vaunted run defense and led 21-0 at halftime in a game where Baltimore was missing its best wide receiver, Pickens acknowledged to reporters that things had improved somewhat on offense during his time in Pittsburgh, but gave a grim prognostication of what the future may hold.

“Yeah, I’ve seen signs of growth, for sure,” Pickens said when asked about the offense. “From past – first year I’ve been here, just way more growth, for sure.”

Did that give the third-year wideout cause for hope?

“Uh, nah,” Pickens said.

The Steelers offense was held to 280 yards as a unit, a modest output given the team’s talent level. However, that low number must be attributed mainly to the suffocating pressure the Ravens put on the Steelers run game and quarterback Russell Wilson. Running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren were held to a combined 23 yards on the ground, and Wilson was sacked four times and knocked down or pressured on at least eight other occasions.

Pickens didn’t have a bad game, statistically. He led Pittsburgh with five catches for 87 yards and caught one of Wilson’s two touchdowns on what was probably the only bad play by the Ravens’ secondary all night, where rookie Nate Wiggins failed to get a jam on Pickens at the line and ended up getting beat down the sideline.

Still, Pickens’s comments are likely to make an already unsettling offseason in the Steel City even more so.

Pittsburgh has not won a playoff game since 2016 and has dropped five contests at the end of the regular season. The team has been in limbo since the exit of longtime starter Ben Roethlisberger, as several different quarterback auditions have failed to produce a consistent starter. Meanwhile, the team’s coaching and talent acquisition staff remain good enough at their jobs that Pittsburgh finishes each season ranked too high to draft a quarterback at the top of the draft.

Pickens may not be wrong in his assessment of the Steelers’ future. Russel Wilson doesn’t appear to be the answer, and the torch has definitively passed to

Baltimore. Still, it’s not going to make the fans feel any better.