Mike Tomlin - Frustrated George Pickens 'wants to be significant' - ESPN

PITTSBURGH — Moments after wide receiver Diontae Johnson scored the go-ahead touchdown in the Pittsburgh Steelers' win against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday, fellow Steelers receiver George Pickens bowed his head and ran off the field as his teammates ran to Johnson to celebrate his first touchdown in nearly two years.

Afterward, cameras caught Pickens subdued and frowning on the bench as his teammates continued celebrating. Pickens finished the game with two catches for minus-1 yard. He also nearly scored his own go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, but he failed to get his second foot down in bounds despite seeming to have room to do so.

After back-to-back 100-yard receiving games, the second-year receiver had his second consecutive quiet outing Thursday night. He had just one catch for 22 yards in the loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Asked Tuesday if Pickens has expressed frustration to him, coach Mike Tomlin laughed.

«Heck yeah, man,» Tomlin said at his weekly news conference. «He expresses frustration all the time. He wants to be significant. He wants to be a reason why we're successful. Y'all don't begrudge that. I want guys who want the football. I want guys who want to be central reasons why we're successful and so that's a nonissue, to be quite honest with you.»

A day after the Steelers' win against the Titans, social media sleuths took note as Pickens unfollowed the team on Instagram and deleted all references to the team and all posts except a highlight reel from April 2020 from his account. Some social media users also grabbed screenshots of a later-deleted Instagram Story that was captioned, «free me.»

By Saturday morning, Pickens restored many of the Instagram posts to his account that featured the