Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens has been embroiled in controversy with his own team lately, but he recently caught some national controversy after a comment he made about Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Pickens was a guest on The Facility on FS1 recently and called St. Brown a “slot merchant,” which drew a negative reaction from many who saw the clip. It was obvious Pickens didn’t mean it as a dig, but that’s how some took it.
“Schematically is the big thing in football,” Pickens said. “That’s how you get Amon-Ra St. Brown’s, you know, slot merchants that schematically get fed the ball.”
Of course, St. Brown is most well known for his work out of the slot, but that’s not all he does. The USC product has actually only lined up in the slot for 56.2% of snaps, while spending another 43.2% out wide.
Nevertheless, there wasn’t any ill intent on Pickens’ part, and that’s exactly how St. Brown looked at it when asked about the Steelers wide receiver’s comments on Thursday.
“I feel like a lot of people just saw the clip and just saw the short part of it, but I don’t think he meant anything bad,” St. Brown explained. “I feel like he was just saying that if you have a good offensive coordinator, which we do have — Ben’s great, he’s special at what he does, he’s able to get guys in spots to make plays, so that’s a credit to Ben and everyone on that staff. But, like I said, I don’t think (Pickens) meant any malintent, he’s just saying with a good offensive coordinator, you make plays.”
So, there you have it. St. Brown didn’t take Pickens’ comment as a slight, so nobody who did initially should, either. We can all go on with our lives.