With Mike Tomlin coming into his nineteenth season because the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, it shouldn’t be any shock that he has his fingerprints on nearly each determination that’s made throughout the group. Whereas Kevin Colbert’s GM tenure predated Tomlin, Omar Khan is only a few years into that function. When you had any doubts about who was pushing for WR George Pickens to be traded, one insider could be very sure that Tomlin was the driving pressure.
Pittsburgh Publish-Gazette insider Gerry Dulac was requested this morning through his weekly Steelers chat if Tomlin wished to maintain Pickens however was overruled by Khan and Artwork Rooney II.
“He was behind it and all-in on it,” Dulac wrote. “He’s the coach. He makes the roster choices. Rooney can intervene if he so chooses.”
The primary public tackle from a Steelers determination maker after the commerce was by Khan. He spoke to the media and acknowledged {that a} recent begin was the correct transfer for each side. When Tomlin spoke to the media, he deferred to Khan and seconded the concept that it was greatest for all events concerned.
It was Tomlin, in any case, who publicly mentioned Pickens wanted to develop up in a rush after certainly one of his post-snap penalties throughout a sport final season. Whereas Tomlin normally shies away from fueling the media flames, that assertion in early December was an omen of issues to come back.
Not solely did the Steelers commerce for DK Metcalf and provides him the big-money extension that Pickens in any other case might have been due, however they finally traded Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2026 third-round decide and a 2027 decide swap within the late rounds.
Past the on-field points, Pickens was late for practices and video games, and he wasn’t displaying any indicators of maturing after three years within the group. There isn’t a telling how a lot went on behind the scenes that the general public isn’t aware about. Dulac reported earlier within the week that there have been a “litany of violations,” even some that went undetected by the teaching workers at occasions.
The Steelers wouldn’t have made this impactful of a commerce had Tomlin not signed off on it. Dulac went a step additional and advised he not solely signed off on it however was behind the thought within the first place.
