The Pittsburgh Steelers traded wide receiver George Pickens, and his baggage, to Dallas for a third round draft pick next year.

Many Black and Gold fans became apoplectic.

Why?

George Pickens is an ultra talented wide receiver. He is also immature, inconsistent, and imbecilic. I defended his early tantrums, as he was clearly fed up with the lack of ability at the quarterback position. He also didn’t seem a fan of the play calling.

Then Pickens started taking plays off, not blocking, and having one temper tantrum after another.

In other words, the baggage outweighed the talent and became untenable.

Remember Antonio “call God” Brown? How about Chase Claypool? Dionte Johnson? Martavis Bryant?

The Steelers have made some bad choices when drafting wide receivers. They have almost always made the correct choice when letting them go.

Regardless of what George Pickens goes on to do in Dallas or elsewhere, this was the correct move for the Steelers. Pickens was in the last year of his rookie contract. It was evident that Pittsburgh had no intention of signing him again. It is also clear that the Steelers had put up with all they could from their immature prima donna wide receiver.

Plus there were these reports of team leaders being done with the Pickens circus.

 

Getting a third round pick is fair compensation. By all accounts, the Steelers held out during the draft because they were only being offered a fourth round pick. Ah, leave it to Jerry Jones to step up the offer for a malcontent.

This wasn’t just the right move. It was the smart move.

My complaint of the Steelers right now is the fact that they are directionless. They continue to act as if they are in “win now” mode, but they don’t have a “win now” quarterback. On the other hand, Mike Tomlin finds a way, with whatever roster he has, to slither past .500.

Despite the age of the defensive superstars —Cam Heyward, TJ Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick— and the fact the Steelers went out and traded for and signed DK Metcalf, a rebuild is in order.

Omar Khan has been smart about drafting. His idea is clearly to build up the trenches. The only thing Khan hasn’t been able to do is find the next franchise quarterback. Drafting in the twenty range makes that extremely difficult.

That brings me back to the Pickens trade.

The Steelers added a third round pick to their already bountiful supply of picks next year.

 

That is 7 picks in the first four rounds.

Regardless of who takes snaps this year, clearly next year —in a quarterback heavy draft— the Steelers plan is to take a quarterback. Regardless of whether Tomlin pulls his magic trick of finishing slightly above .500 or not, the Steelers have the kind of draft capital that will allow them to trade up in the draft.

Look, I get it. It would have been tremendous to watch Pickens and Metcalf line up together and catch bombs from…from…from…you see where this is going. Mason Rudolph is…well, Mason Rudolph. Will Howard is going to be a rookie. Aaron Rodgers —he joined a Pittsburgh country club/he didn’t join a Pittsburgh country club— is 41. He wasn’t good last year and won’t be this year either.

Steelers fans apparently forget the litany of no names, bad names, and worse names that played quarterback between Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger. This stretch is nothing compared to that.

So, if you aren’t resigning Pickens and you don’t have anything remotely close to above average at quarterback then why keep Pickens?

Despite the yelling, hollering, complaining, and finger pointing, the Steelers made a prudent move. And it really shouldn’t be debatable. In a rebuilding year —or whatever the Steelers describe it as— with no quarterback and no intention of paying Pickens, why wouldn’t you trade him?

Complaining about this trade is the equivalent to peeing into the wind. It is wrong, it is senseless, and it will leave you all wet.

Two Cent Takes

NFL

~Why would anyone allow Aaron Rodgers to clown them? That’s exactly what the media whore is doing. Either he wants to play or he wants to retire. Why the Steelers would want a washed up 41 year old is baffling. Tom Brady he isn’t, on or off the field.

NBA

~Hey Cavs, what’s up? Cleveland is about to get bounced early once again. Maybe we should not doubt Tyrese Halliburton and the Pacers. Eastern Conference finals last year and one game away this year.

~Newsflash for Draymond Green: We don’t think you are an angry black man. We think you are a cheap shotting douche.

~Jalen Brunson is something else. He has the Knicks on the threshold of their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000. With Jayson Tatum looking like he may be out for Boston, the Knicks should be able to finish off the Celtics. Knicks and Pacers. Different. Good for the league.

~It is fun to see Rick Pitino, Patrick Ewing, and Walt “Clyde” Frazier in the front row at MSG. Frazier ran that joint back in the day. He may be the only 80 year old that still looks like they could play.

~So, um…uh…the Mavs trade Luka Doncic to the Lakers. Then with a 1.8% chance, the Mavs win the number one pick in this year’s draft. Cooper Flagg to the Mavs. So…yea…that isn’t shady business, right? Maybe not, but it is a stupid way to select draft order. This is why I have little time for this league.

~The Sixers moved up two spots by getting the third pick. Could it be one of the Rutgers stars —Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey— heading down the road to Philly?

NHL

~No predictions, just a PSA. Watch at least some,of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They are amazing and always unpredictable. Exhibit A:

 

Game winner with .4 seconds, to-ping Winnipeg’s game tying goal in game seven of round one with 1.6 seconds left.

College Baseball

~Every weekend college baseball teams play a series. Every weekend a Tennessee player or coach acts like an ass.

 

Tennessee went on to lose the game and series to Vanderbilt and tried to start a fight after the game Sunday. I have been following USC baseball this year and neither the Trojans nor their opponents act anything close to that. Maybe the Vols head coach that ESPN wanted to splash all over the airwaves last year is simply a Draymond Green.

College Football

~Penn State this, Penn State that. Let’s see how Mr. Emotionally Steady James Franklin handles a target on his back.

~Oregon is losing it’s hold on California, as the new regime at USC is reclaiming the state with its impressive 2026 class. Dan LannINg must be feeling the pressure considering this stunt.

 

Not only is that, what do the kids say, cringe, but the kid immediately reopened his recruitment to consider other schools. Smart move.

~Three star wide receiver decommits from USC after seeing the receiver room. Next day four star Mater Dei linebacker Shaun Scott commits to the Trojans. Hey Trojans fans getting PTSD about decommits: stay calm and fight on.

~Who knew Bill Belichick was actually a dawg? I mean a purebred Dawg.

 

And it came out yesterday that Jordan Hudson was only 19 when Belichick met her. Billy B is a Dawg with a capital D. But does UNC want the circus on campus? This is going to be a short stay in Chapel Hill for Belichick. I mean he’s clearly got beauty pageants to be attending.

Golf

~Here are some thoughts on the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where Scottie Scheffler is the favorite barely ahead of Rory McIlroy. Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Thomas are all top five odds picks.

  • After watching Scottie Scheffler two weeks ago it is hard to pick against him.
  • Rory will have a majors let down. He won’t be terrible, considering he has won at Quail Hollow four times, but just won’t win it.
  • DeChambeau is the LIV player to keep an eye on. He seems to always be in contention.
  • I don’t get Rahm being one of the favorites.
  • Justin Thomas is playing well and has already won a PGA at Quail Hollow. Watch JT.
  • Some longer shots that could make some noise are Victor Hovland(50-1), Tony Finau(110-1), and my usual ultra dog Will Zalatoris(130-1).
  • My pick to win falls under the “if you don’t succeed, pick the guy again”. My pick is Ludvig Aberg which I especially love at 28-1.

The Weekly Shiny Penny

Always good to see big time athletes not act like big time athletes. No matter who you are politeness and kindness should be tenants of your personality. Good for Travis Hunter, also an academic All American while at Colorado.

 

A Penny For My Final Thought…

The Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton.

Let’s get some things straight.

Shelton did not get the shaft, as some ESPN talking heads will lead you to believe. He was a terrible manager of a terrible team. He was poor at many things from lineup construction to bullpen usage to lack of accountability. His teams were beyond poor at the fundamentals.

Shelton will not be hired as a manager any time soon. I would argue he may never get another chance.

As I said last week, barring a lightning strike, a genie granting Pirates fans one wish, or aliens abducting the goofiest guy they can find, Bob Nutting isn’t going anywhere. With that miserable fact in mind, the real move to make was firing GM Ben Cherington. As bad as Shelton was, it was nothing compared to the destruction this brain dead GM has caused.

In reality, nobody could polish this turd of a team. Danny Murtaugh wouldn’t have enough one liners to mentally survive this team. Chuck Tanner wouldn’t have enough positivity with a group so negatively affected by lack of talent. Jim Leyland wouldn’t have nearly enough packs of smokes to watch this hot garbage.

In other words, even if Derek Shelton was a good manager this team would be terrible. This fiasco is all on Nutting and Cherington. What is true is Shelton was the fall guy. He deserved to be the fall guy, but that is exactly what happened. The cancer that plagues this franchise continues to fester.

I love Don Kelly, and I hope he succeeds. But don’t count on it.

  • Kelly has an alleged gold glove third baseman who is struggling to field and never could hit.
  • At 38 Andrew McCutchen should be hitting 6 or 7 in the lineup, but instead Cutch is forced to hit third.
  • The offense is littered with AAAA types like Jared Triolo, Alexander Canario, Emanuel Valdez, and Ji-Hwan Bae.
  • Oldies but not goodies like Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier are just hogging spots from younger guys they may as well find out about.
  • Failed development of number one pick Henry Davis.
  • Oh, and Bryan Reynolds stinks. Stinks real bad right now.

All of that mess listed above is the GM’s fault not the manager.

Derek Shelton had to go. He wasn’t good at his job. That’s a fact. Ben Cherington, however, is even worse at his job. Keeping him doesn’t just border on the absurd, but rather takes absurdity to a whole new level.

Think about this Bucco fans. The guy that has not drafted and developed one single, solitary hitter will oversee yet another draft. The guy who has brought in absolutely no talent via trade in five years will oversee yet another trade deadline.

And you thought the Pirates already hit rock bottom.

Just my two cents…