Mike Tomlin clarifies deactivating George Pickens

Mike Tomlin praised the play of Scotty Miller in place of George Pickens.

Head coach Mike Tomlin addressed the media after the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-14 win over the Cleveland Browns. He wanted to be clear on the situation surrounding his choice to deactivate wide receiver George Pickens and replace him on the active roster with Scotty Miller on Sunday.

Pickens showed up on the injury report on Friday with a hamstring injury and was originally listed as questionable. Rumor was that Pickens would go but Tomlin opted to not play Pickens and thankfully things worked out.

According to Tomlin, he chose to deactivate Pickens because he didn’t want a small problem to turn into a big problem and he didn’t feel like Pickens could give them enough snaps to make it worth putting him in uniform. Tomlin also praised the play of Miller in his absence.

The Steelers offense slowed down without Pickens in the lineup and leaned heavily on the run game and turned things over to the defense and special teams to do most of the heavy lifting.

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