Worst George Pickens report yet should be the final straw for Mike Tomlin

The Pittsburgh Steelers exited the NFL Playoffs without barely a whimper and are now setting their sights on the offseason, first a tricky free agency period and then the 2025 NFL Draft. However, it could be an even more tumultuous offseason than expected. Because even though the Steelers are expected to retain head coach Mike Tomlin (despite the calls from many fans), George Pickens might not be coming back.

As fans an analysts alike have gathered their post-mortems for the Steelers' season following the Wild Card Round exit, Mike DeFabo of The Athletic ($) laid out five steps for Pittsburgh to change the course as they near dangerously close to a decade without a playoff win. And in that, he suggested trading Pickens and resetting the receiving room — but did so with good reason.

While Pickens' on-field conduct has resulted in numerous frustrating penalties while his off-field comments have drawn plenty of ire, DeFabo laid the hammer with his latest report. Ahead of the Christmas Day Game, a loss at home to the Chiefs, Pickens reportedly showed up an hour and 25 minutes before kickoff, 35 minutes after Tomlin had asked players to be in the building at the latest.

Pair that with everything else, and it's an indictment on how Tomlin is handling Pickens, the Steelers and his job at this point.

George Pickens was late for Steelers Christmas Day game as Mike Tomlin's empire crumbles

Throughout his tenure in Pittsburgh, there have been no shortage of mercurial and enigmatic players that Tomlin has dealt with. Largely, he's done so successfully with the likes of Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell and others, at least for some amount of time. But in the current context of Pickens, this might be the last straw.

Pickens simply doesn't seem to get it — not at all. His lack of maturity at this point is astounding and, while he's truly a special talent at the wide receiver position, that shouldn't supercede everything. In most cases, if a player shows up after inactives have already been announced, it'd probably be safe to say that they would be listed as inactive since, you know, they aren't in the building. But Pickens played in that Christmas Day game, even being blamed by fans for causing a back-breaking interception.

Tomlin, however, made excuses for that play and has consistently done so with Pickens. But let's also not forget that Tomlin and the Steelers also sent Diontae Johnson, another reported locker room problem, away this offseason. That left Pittsburgh reeling at the position all season, which may have only further enabled Pickens.

Now, this might all be something that would not make Steelers fans happy but that they'd be able to deal with if the team was in good shape and winning playoff games. They're not, however. It's been since 2017 that Tomlin has led this team to a postseason victory, the offense cratered down the stretch, and there isn't a surefire answer at quarterback after the Russell Wilson-Justin Fields experiment this season.

In this case, Pickens has exacerbated the problems that were already bubbling under the surface. There is a chance that what once worked for Tomlin and the Steelers no longer does and the game is passing them by. When you then throw in an immature star who might be running the show more so than the head coach, that's only going to make things worse.

Tomlin has clearly lost control of Pickens and may be close to letting go of the rope in Pittsburgh as well with how things are trending. But given this latest report, it'd be hard to blame anyone in the Steelers front office if they didn't follow DeFabo's suggestion and get the wide receiver out of the building to try and refresh the situation at least somewhat.