George Pickens Fires Back at Critics Who Said He Wasn’t Blocking Hard Enough vs. Colts

The receiver failed to help block defenders as his teammate Jaylen Warren attempted to score a touchdown.

Steelers receiver George Pickens was criticized for appearing to lack effort on blocking duty during Saturday’s 30–13 loss to the Colts.

As Pittsburgh running back Jaylen Warren attempted to rush into the end zone, Pickens was caught failing to help block Colts defenders for Warren to score a touchdown.

When asked about this criticism, Pickens turned the questioning around when speaking to media on Tuesday by instead firing back his thoughts on the critics.

“All the people that’s questioning my effort, they don’t play football, they do what y’all do,” Pickens said. “All that people do that got opinions, they’re media, surface guys. None of them play football.”

The second-year player specifically said he didn’t block the defenders more in that moment because he wanted to avoid a Texans receiver “Tank Dell situation.” Dell broke his left fibula and is out for the season after blocking defenders as his teammate scored a touchdown. Pickens didn’t want to suffer an injury on the play.

George Pickens on why he didn’t block for Warren: “I was just trying to prevent the Tank Dell situation, the same thing that happened to (him). I ain't want to get an injury. When you stay on the block too low, you can get ran up on very easily.”

pic.twitter.com/zF4UUMVpBP

— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) December 19, 2023

With the Steelers’ loss Saturday, the team dropped out of the playoff picture and now sits in the hunt with the AFC’s No. 10 playoff seed.