In a shocking turn of events, it is being reported by ESPN that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens is inactive for today’s game against the Cleveland Browns. Pickens showed up on the injury report on Friday with a hamstring injury.
With Pickens out, the Steelers lose their top deep threat and top receiving option for quarterback Russell Wilson. Look for the Steelers to use more of the short passing game and checkdowns we saw last week against the Cincinnati Bengals as well as lean on the run game heavily.
The conspiracy theorist in us has to wonder if this injury is really bad enough to make Pickens inactive or is this a move by Tomlin to either punish Pickens for his recent problems on the field or if this is a case of saving him from himself and shield the team from potential problems in such a big game.
But the most logical reason is Tomlin is just being overly cautious with Pickens injury considering the stretch of three games in 10 days coming up on the schedule.