Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens took a parting shot at the team in a social media comment.
In a now-deleted comment on Instagram, Pickens called the team the “cheapest organization.”
Pickens commented on an interview by Prospect Media with his former teammates Beanie Bishop and Payton Wilson, who were describing their reactions to the news of the trade of Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys.
Wilson said he feels the front office makes moves like trading Pickens with a long-distance lens, trying to stack successful seasons instead of pushing all in on 2025. Pickens seemed to disagree with that viewpoint.
“They the cheapest organization,” Pickens wrote. “Ain’t no stacking year after year they gone let them [expletive] go too soon as it’s time Lmaoo.”
George Pickens commenting about the Steelers on instagram #steelers pic.twitter.com/sxWFXyMXXi
— Matthew Luciow (@matthewluciow92) May 11, 2025
Pickens insinuated that he was traded because the team didn’t want to pay him as he entered a contract year.
Of course, the team just agreed to pay wide receiver DK Metcalf $150 million after acquiring him earlier this offseason, and are likely to hand out a record-setting contract extension to outside linebacker T.J. Watt later this offseason that could be worth $40 million a season.
General manager Omar Khan didn’t mention contract talks as a reason that Pickens was traded, and team sources confirmed to Steelers Now that no talks had even occurred before the trade, with the Steelers preferring to do that type of business later in the summer.
“We just felt that a fresh start for both sides was the right thing,” Khan said.
Instead, Pickens’ actions on and off the field — including social media drama like his Instagram comment — were the reason for his departure from the team, with the organization looking to rid itself of a headache, even if it meant trading away a talented player.
“George Pickens had stepped over and crossed the line a bit too many times and I know people that play with the Steelers,” former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said on the Up on Game Podcast on Saturday. “He’d be late for the team plane that would be flying out to away games multiple times. He’d be late to get on the team bus and they had enough of it.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: George Pickens Rips Steelers in Instagram Comment: ‘Cheapest Organization’
