The Pittsburgh Steelers have had issues with their skill players blocking for their other skill players — specifically, receiver George Pickens’ lackadaisical efforts against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15’s 30-13 loss.
That kind of stuff can permeate an organization if you’re not careful, especially when Pickens came right out and dais that he wasn’t giving maximum effort because he didn’t want to get hurt, but running back Jaylen Warren was having none of it.
“I see where he’s coming from,” Warren told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It is what it is. At the end of the day, he was doing what he thought was best for him.
“Some people play the game differently. If I was in that position, I would have blocked for him. But we play differently, so…”
Well, on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals, Warren backed up his words with a ridiculous block to free receiver Calvin Austin on this seven-yard touchdown run with 14:21 left in the first half.
Watch the block from Jaylen Warren on the touchdown. 😳
📺: #CINvsPIT on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/yewPow3ekF pic.twitter.com/dIJqVQx4uB— NFL (@NFL) December 23, 2023
Twitter had a lot of nice things to say about Warren’s effort.
Jaylen Warren sent Germaine Pratt to the shadow realm.
— Derrick (@Steelers_DB) December 23, 2023
Might not have been George Pickens with the football, but #Steelers RB Jaylen Warren backed up his “I would have blocked” comments.
Good lord! pic.twitter.com/B937W1XfNg
— Josh Carney (@ByJoshCarney) December 23, 2023
Jaylen Warren wins #AngryBlock block if the week pic.twitter.com/HLa7eyQk5J
— Bob Pompeani (@KDPomp) December 23, 2023
Jaylen Warren just destroyed this dude pic.twitter.com/mLJwhH1RRp
— Mitchell Schwartz (@MitchSchwartz71) December 23, 2023
Jaylen Warren said he would block for his receivers and just put on a clinic of putting his man on his back.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) December 23, 2023
Jaylen Warren just doing his job w authority. Let the block do the talking.
— Kevin Negandhi (@KevinNegandhi) December 23, 2023
When Mason Rudolph executes the play as called and Jaylen Warren dumps some poor dude out of horizontal motion pic.twitter.com/gkNeKziQXR
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) December 23, 2023
Jaylen Warren would have definitely blocked for George Pickens.
— Jeff Bell (@4WhomJBellTolls) December 23, 2023
Jaylen Warren came with bad intentions pic.twitter.com/EfvMHirIgh
— GoJo and Golic (@GoJoandGolic) December 23, 2023