Steelers Less Than Dynamic WR Duo Earn Harsh Words From Marshall Faulk For Lack Of Effort

The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver room is catching a lot of heat nationally this week. Diontae Johnson and George Pickens have piled poor efforts on the field on top of terrible interactions with the media off the field. The less-than-dynamic duo have dug a very deep hole for themselves in Pittsburgh and, to a lesser extent, the NFL. They may be on borrowed time with the Steelers, but teams starving for wide receiver talent would likely be happy to give them a second chance at the right price.

Marshall Faulk appeared on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday and joined the chorus of NFL Hall of Fame players who have been openly critical of the Steelers' wide receivers. Pickens's response to the media that they were not qualified to judge him because they did not play professional football has been met with criticism from ex-players like Ryan Clark, Shannon Sharpe, and Faulk. The former superstar running back gave Johnson and Pickens one of the sternest rebukes so far.

“What I saw those two receivers do, I’m telling you right now, if that was Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt, every time I got a chance, I’d run up their back. I’d hit them in the back. You either block or get ran over.”

Faulk played in one of the best offenses in NFL history with Kurt Warner, Tory Holt, and Isaac Bruce with the then-St. Louis Rams. The Greatest Show on Turf team is about as far removed as it gets from the current Steelers offense. Faulk was not even close to finishing his criticism of Pickens and Johnson.

“What they’re doing, that’s not even football man,” Faulk continued. “Watching them two stand up. He [Johnson] watched the ball and the other guy gets out of the way. Just let a guy go hit the running back. You don’t do that.”

Steelers' George Pickens And Jaylen Warren Meet In Private

Jaylen Warren was at the center of the two worst examples of the issues that Johnson and Pickens have totally checked out on the Steelers. It isn't likely that Johnson could have recovered Warren's fumble against the Cincinnati Bengals, but he could have limited the return. Warren would have likely scored against the Indianapolis Colts when Pickens hung him out to dry by refusing to block.

The Hall of Fame running back was incredulous that the two Steelers malcontents making significantly more money than Warren would hang a teammate out to dry. Eisen, who channeled his best passive-aggressive imitation of Ben Roethlisberger, used Faulk as a surrogate by asking him what responsibility Mike Tomlin had for the current state of affairs in the Pittsburgh receiving room.

“Your best two receivers, can you win games without those two,” Faulk responded. “It’s your best two receivers and coaching today is hard. If you gotta bench those two guys, we both know cause we watched with Antonio Brown, he don’t have a problem benching you. He don’t have a problem sending you to the locker room. But in today’s climate, you gotta win games. You are already talent deficient.”

Antonio Brown was not benched in Pittsburgh. He quit on the team in Week 17 of the 2018 season after JuJu-Smith Schuster was awarded the team MVP. Brown was not planning to suit up for the final game with the Steelers still having a slim chance of making the playoffs with a victory. It is more than a little revisionist history to assert that as an example of Tomlin getting tough with a player. There are other significant examples, however. 

Modern athletes present unique challenges to older coaches like Tomlin and Bill Belichick. Andy Reid is struggling to reach his young wide receiver corps in Kansas City, and he has Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. The NFL's move to emphasize the passing game and de-emphasize the running game has turned the game upside down all over the NFL. Running backs were leaders on NFL teams for decades. They took heavy punishment over short careers. 

The NFL protects quarterbacks and wide receivers from any physical retribution for making bad plays. Running backs are the only people on offense you can still hit hard and not draw an automatic flag. The game is suffering for it across the league. Pickens and Johnson are not the only lazy players in the NFL. It is just magnified because the Steelers have largely been immune to this level of buffoonery on the field. 

This is the NFL that Roger Goodell wants. Forget the defense and running game, bet the over, and tune in for the next car wreck with this week's malcontented receiver that costs Chad his fantasy football championship. It is a great drama meant for reality television. The only problem is they are passing it off as Steelers football.