Mike Tomlin vociferously defended George Pickens Tuesday when asked about the rookie wideout's sideline outburst during the Steelers' win Sunday over the Falcons.
The Steelers' head coach said he would rather see passion from his players than apathy, and that's true in a vacuum. But Tomlin has a concerning history of coddling wide receivers. There is a fine line to walk when it comes between supporting players and enabling them.
Pickens' blowup Sunday wasn't a huge deal. Frustrated with his lack of targets, Pickens yelled at the coaches to "get him the [expletive] ball" early in the fourth quarter after Diontae Johnson's fumble. Despite Johnson's struggles, he led the team with 11 targets, while Kenny Picketts only threw to Pickens twice (he caught one of those passes for one yard).
Later in the fourth, Cam Heyward approached Pickens and appeared to calm him down. The Steelers handled the issue internally, and walked away with their third win in four games.
"I'd rather say 'woah' than 'sic 'em.' I want a guy that wants to be a significant part of what it is that we do," Tomlin told reporters. "The appropriate and professional and mature way to express that, we're growing and working on. But that competitive spirit, the guy that wants the ball, I want that guy."
Fair enough. But the Steelers have seen what happens when receivers' egos explode. Antonio Brown's stellar production overshadowed his chaotic antics until he got into an argument with Ben Roethlsiberger and skipped practices leading into the crucial final game of the season.
Along the way, Brown also live-streamed Tomlin's fiery post-game speech after the 2017 AFC Divisional Round, in which Tomlin called out the Patriots.
New England throttled the Steelers in the AFC Championship the following week.
Juju Smith-Schuster didn't come close to matching Brown's self-destruction, but he did engage in some childish antics, such as dancing on opponents' midfield logos for TikTok and calling out the Browns as "nameless gray faces."
Cleveland responded by beating the Steelers 48-37 in the 2020 Wild Card Round.
Most recently, Chase Claypool campaigned for the Steelers to start playing more music and having fun at practice. He was dealt at the trade deadline following a series of late-game blunders and streak of poor production.
Pickens isn't close to those levels yet. The second-round pick is enjoying a fine rookie season, with 37 receptions for 512 yards and two touchdowns. But this is when behavioral habits are formed.
Both Mitch Trubisky and Picketts have complained this season about players yapping in the huddle, and not listening to the plays.
"I just like a clean huddle. I want everyone to hear the call. I want everyone to be on their Ps and Qs of what they have to do," said Picketts earlier this season.
Pickens displayed passion Sunday. But as we've seen, passion can transform into selfishness. Tomlin's track record of safeguarding against that isn't the best.
