The Pittsburgh Steelers are trending in the wrong direction.
After a promising 3-0 start to the season, Sunday night’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys was their second in a row and dropped Pittsburgh to 3-2 on the season. One notable development from Sunday’s loss was the absence of star wide receiver George Pickens from the field during many of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps.
In his Tuesday press conference, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin addressed the developing situation around his number one pass catcher.
“I didn’t have any outlying issue with his effort,” Tomlin said, per ESPN. “As I mentioned after the game … that’s just a snap management thing and an effort to be more productive in today’s game regarding analytics, we do it across a lot of positions, particularly when you look at the totality of a 17-game schedule.
“I’d imagine Cam Heyward, for example, is playing less snaps than he has just trying to grow and trying to get optimum productivity among some individuals and going about the best means of doing so, and so that’s probably a reflection of the snap totality of last week.
“Most players, particularly in today’s game that have specialized skill sets that play positions like receiver, they don’t play every down — they’re like rush men.
“They don’t play every down because you need them in significant moments. You need ’em at the back half of the season. You need ’em in the second half of football games and those weighty downs, and so it’s really just a 2024 discussion regarding load management.”
It seems Pickens wasn’t benched, but you’d think the Steelers would keep their biggest offensive threat on the field as much as possible. It’ll be interesting to see how the situation unfolds.
