Former Steelers safety and current ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark had a few thoughts on the current state of his old team’s wide receiver group, and none of them were particularly good.
Pittsburgh’s receiver corps once again found itself making headlines for all the wrong reasons after George Pickens did not block for running back Jaylen Warren on a play near the goal line during Saturday’s 30-13 loss to the Colts.
Pickens admitted he did not set a block because he didn’t want to get hurt, and that has not sat well with fans, and Warren appeared to call him out, telling reporters this week, “I would have blocked for him.”
But Clark expressed concern over a “cancer” in the wide receiver room that he feels has developed over the years for reasons that he was not clear about.
“The other piece of it for me is the state of that room, the wide receiver room,” Clark said during Thursday’s “NFL Live” on ESPN. “From Antonio Brown to JuJu [Smith-Schuster] to Chase Claypool to Diontae [Johnson] to now George Pickens. There’s been a cancer in that room. I don’t know how it started. I don’t know if it’s coach [Mike] Tomlin’s ability or willingness to let you be authentically you, but something needs to change.
“Because what’s happened generation to generation, era to era, year to year in that room has been absolutely unacceptable.”
It was a strong reaction to a situation that Clark seemed to feel has gone on too long for the franchise.
Questions surrounding Pickens’ effort about Saturday’s game, but it wasn’t the first time he’s been under fire this season.
The second-year receiver had a cryptic social media post after a Week 9 win in which he had minus-1 yard on five targets.
“Free me,” he wrote on his Instagram Story.
He also appeared openly frustrated on the sideline during a loss to the Patriots earlier this month.
Tomlin said this week Pickens will play in this upcoming weekend’s crucial AFC North home game against the Bengals but didn’t specify whether he was facing any discipline for his play in the Indianapolis loss.
During a rare media appearance after practice on Wednesday, Tomlin acknowledged that Pickens was still a “work in progress.”
“It’s not going to be one incident, or one meeting or one form of discipline that’s going to institute the type of change that we’re hunting to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said, according to NFL.com.
“It is going to be continual. He has not helped himself. He has not helped the process in the manner in which he’s dealt with you guys.
“But the manner in which he deals with you guys is not necessarily the manner in which he deals with us or himself, regarding acknowledging where he is and where he needs to go.”
