OTTAWA -- So, what exactly was George Pickens' major malfunction again?
Remind me, please, since I've now spent several months getting to know this kid, both at the field and away from it, about as well as I've gotten to know any new youngster to our city in some time. And if there's anything that stood out to me as much as the extraordinary athleticism he exhibited as a rookie with the Steelers, it was exemplary character.
"I'm proud of what I did here this season," he told me a few days ago. "I'm proud of what we're getting started, all of us as an offense, as a football team. The next step now's getting to the playoffs."
Uh-huh. Call 911 and send the Character Police at once.
Look, he wasn't perfect, if only in the context that none of us are. He had the one throw-me-the-bleeping-ball tantrum on the sideline, which remains a no-no in the football culture even if the complainant is completely correct, which he was. But that was it as far as the field, and there wasn't anything significant away from it, either. To the contrary, what I experienced was a kind, cordial, easy-to-smile young man who'd assimilate into any environment whether he was some stud wide receiver or not. All walks of life.
But hey, you know, there was that single scrap in a single college game three years ago:
Oh, for real.
That plus Pickens' torn ACL in the spring of 2021, of course, legitimately contributed to his plunge from a surefire first-rounder in the 2022 NFL Draft to the second round and No. 52 overall, where the Steelers gleefully stopped the fall. But even regarding the ACL, every team had the same opportunity at Georgia's Pro Day to watch Pickens annihilate all doubts about the knee with a show for the ages, so I can't help but think the "maturity issues," as one scouting service remarked at the time, were the real red flag.
So yeah, he should be proud.
"I think I really showed everybody ... that, you know, where I got drafted, the stigma they had on me ... I kinda showed everybody, like, yeah, this guy's different. You know what I mean? I'm not the guy they said I was. ... Before I came into the league, there was a lot of talk about, 'Is he gonna have good character? Is he gonna have this or that?' And the guys around this team really embraced me. And I feel like I showed people around the country and the world -- yeah, I'm not that guy. I'm a team player."
MORE STEELERS
• This might surprise some, but a bunch of the credit for Pickens' assimilation, per Pickens himself, goes to Diontae Johnson. Sure, Johnson's had his diva issues on occasion, though nothing that'd stretch the bounds of the wide receiver genre. And for whatever else was going awry for Johnson, he was legitimately there for Pickens the whole way.
• Rather than snap at the players who've done a full 180 on Matt Canada in recent weeks -- and my goodness, that's a lengthy list, at least among those who've done it for public consumption -- I'd prefer to applaud it. It speaks more about them that they've remained receptive than if they'd ignored all the bona fide good the offense achieved over the season's second half.
• Mike Tomlin's not about to divulge his reasons for retaining Canada, not now and likely not ever. The best I've been able to piece together, and this is largely over time, is that he respects the way Canada goes about his business, and he's a huge fan of anyone who overcomes adversity in any walk of life. Talks about the latter all the time, actually.
• Terrell Edmunds isn't about to take any kind of hometown discount. Just bursting that bubble before it takes on life. He bet on himself with the one-year contract this past season, and he won that bet. If the Steelers aim to keep him -- and they should -- it'll have to be at market rate.
• Awesome to hear that some of the offensive linemen have been texting each other the past couple weeks to ensure they appreciate the progress they made over this past season. Cohesiveness is critical for that room. Really is. And these guys went from barely knowing each other's names to, one, getting super-tight and, two, having their center, Mason Cole, stand so tall off the field that he'd win the Chief Award for cooperation with the local media.
PENGUINS
• Anyone wondering what Drew O'Connor has to do to earn more ice time, wonder no more: The coaches are urging him behind the scenes to be not only more physical with that 6-3 frame but also to unearth some snarl to his approach. To date, he's shown some physicality, including a crushing check into the end boards of Winnipeg's Neal Pionk a few days ago, but precious little of the latter. And that's got to change for him to get a full shot at regular ice time in Pittsburgh, since he's not about to crack this top six.
• This is something of a recurring theme, by the way, with Mike Sullivan: Anthony Angello and Sam Lafferty, two other sizable, young wingers from the recent past, were exhorted the same way. (And from what I heard, at times, they were exhorted hard.) For all the same reasons: They saw themselves as scorers, this organization's got plenty enough of those, and Sullivan needed -- and still needs, for that matter -- disruptors or disturbers. And when neither of those two ever approached snarliness, that was bye-bye for both.
• There remain no trade talks with any team anywhere, from what I was told this week on the trip through Canada's capital. Rejoice.
• Don't let anyone alter the reality on this front: Ron Hextall really and truly was pushing to trade Marcus Pettersson in advance of training camp. And I'm not guessing at this. Pettersson's $4,025,175 cap hit was the one Hextall wanted to move to try to squeeze out some cap maneuverability, and the only reason Pettersson's still here -- and the team's best defenseman -- is that he didn't find a deal. ... My goodness, just imagine an offseason in which he'd have dumped both Pettersson and John Marino while keeping Brian Dumoulin and signing Kasperi Kapanen for two years and $6.4 million.
• If there's so much as a syllable being spoken internally about scratching or even just minimizing the relative impacts of Dumoulin or Jeff Carter, I'm not picking them up. Nothing but respect from the top down.
• It's hardly panic time, but it's still a time where visible ownership can make a difference. Other than partaking in Evgeni Malkin's 1,000th game ceremony, the Fenway Sports Group guys have been nowhere to be seen. In case anyone's hoping for someone to watch the watchmen.
• Teddy Blueger's so far gone, he's hardly recognizable. In any capacity. And take that from someone who's loved the kid forever. More than one individual inside the Penguins' world is still waiting for him to bounce back from that broken jaw.
PIRATES
• Jack Suwinski's not super-big on talking about his extreme home-road splits as a rookie in 2022 -- .282 average, .982 OPS, 16 home runs at PNC Park, but a .112 average, .395 OPS and three home runs everywhere else -- other than to smile and say he loves it here, as he did when I brought it up on the season's final day. But I'm told that there'll be a hard push to work on expanding his repertoire in 2023, even if that means playing him through mega-struggles. This team's hardly in the position to discard 19 home runs, no matter where most of them occur, and the belief from management is that he's always shown a proclivity for adapting/learning in a hurry.
• Nothing new to share on the Bryan Reynolds front. And I strongly suspect it'll remain that way. Right or wrong, they're aiming to keep him.
• Teams that lose 100 games tend not to be bursting at the seams with leaders, so it'll surprise no one that both the 2021 and 2022 editions of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club weren't an exception. So I've been genuinely taken aback that Ben Cherington's added, coincidence or not, several players who come with precisely that reputation in Carlos Santana, Rich Hill, Ji-Man Choi, Austin Hedges and, of course, Andrew McCutchen. And he's even mentioned leadership in conjunction with some of those signings, a trait I can't recall his singling out previously. Take from that what one will.
• Josh Bell wasn't about to get a $17 million salary the way he just did in Cleveland, but he'd have been delighted to return to Pittsburgh.
• Heard ticket sales were going better this offseason. And believe it or not, that was before the Cutch signing.
• With Cutch being re-introduced to Pittsburgh at a PNC Park press conference this afternoon, a tale to share: He and I had a long talk this past summer in Milwaukee, part of which revolved around his status within our city's baseball history. (Totally in my wheelhouse.) And as I'd begun rattling off a few of the names, their achievements, the appreciation for what they meant, I couldn't help but notice him sitting there on the stool and getting all emotional.
• He's back, my friends. And that's so very cool.
