Steelers' George Pickens Responds To Big Accusations With New Instagram Post

The Pittsburgh Steelers organization and its fans are used to hot-headed and drama-inducing wide receivers by now. After all, Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool all started some sort of drama within the Steelers and let their diva side show within the last six years. Now, it is second-year wide receiver George Pickens who has been making headlines by removing all things Steelers-related from his social media on Friday. 

Steelers' Pickens Accuses Fans Of Making Assumptions 

Throughout the day on Friday following the Steelers 20-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football, Pickens was posting controversial things to his Instagram story while unfollowing teammates and deleting all things Steelers-related from his profile. He has since brought back all the archived photos, and started following his teammates back. On Saturday, he posted to his story again stating that fans might be reading too far into his actions.

"Assumptions lol over a picture. That has nun to do with football. Y'all need urgent care lol."

These words were posted over an all dark screen. It's clear he saw the fire he started in the media on Friday, and possibly an agent or someone similar told him to delete his stories and follow his teammates back. The picture Pickens is referring to is one that he posted on Friday and then quickly deleted that had the words "free me" written in a small font in the bottom corner. 

Pickens has obviously been upset about his usage within the offense over the last couple of weeks. Against the Titans in Week 9, he recorded just two catches for negative yards. He was targeted five times throughout the game, but it was clear Diontae Johnson was the focal point at receiver for the Steelers as he was targeted nine times and had seven receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown. Johnson scored his first touchdown since 2021 when Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback of the Steelers, yet Pickens showed no excitement for him. 

In Week 8 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Pickens caught just one pass that he took for 22 yards and a touchdown, but he was targeted five times. Pickens has shown that team success doesn't always matter to him, and if he doesn't get his touches or make important plays he won't be happy whether the team wins or loses. 

There have been reports circling that Pickens is mainly upset with his quarterback Kenny Pickett, and that's why he went diva-mode on social media on Friday. Pickett played really poorly throughout the first three quarters of the game on Thursday night. He missed three really bad passes, which included a short crossing route to Pickens which he likely would have caught and ran for another 20 or so yards. However, Pickett air-mailed the pass and it was way too high for anyone to catch. 

Although Pickett had his noticeable errors on Thursday, Pickens looked pretty bad too. Pickett threw him a beautiful ball on a corner route that should have resulted in a touchdown. Pickens caught the ball, but didn't even attempt to get his two feet down inbounds on the play even. though he had about four or five yards of room. He was mocked all over social media for the play, so there is a chance that is a big reason he is upset as well.

The Steelers now have a long week of preparation ahead of them as they get ready to play the Green Bay Packers in Week 10 of the 2023 NFL season. It should be assumed that Pickens will likely be a bigger part of the game plan than he was Thursday night, and if doesn't get more involved we may see more dramatics from him. 

What do you think of Pickens' actions? Let us know in the comments below!

#SteelerNation