Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens is a surprise inactive against the Cleveland Browns after going down with a hamstring injury. Pickens suffered the injury late in Thursday’s practice, but ESPN insider Adam Schefter went deeper into details.
Schefter says that Pickens’ hamstring began bothering him significantly on Friday, and the team limited him in practice as a result. All of the conversations leading up to the game were that the Steelers would let Pickens play, and they would put him through a dynamic warmup.
However, discussions occurred this morning, apparently after head coach Mike Tomlin had told CBS’ Tracy Wolfson that Pickens would be ‘a go’, that they would hold Pickens out and not risk further injury. The Steelers have done this in the past, and the injury is not considered major, but Pittsburgh does not want Pickens to miss multiple games with the injury.
So, that led to him being inactive and the Steelers having to thrust Mike Williams into the starting role late in the week. Scotty Miller is also active, which will give the Steelers another speed threat to use on the outside.