{"id":43497,"date":"2025-04-24T02:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=43497"},"modified":"2025-04-24T02:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T02:13:00","slug":"breaking-george-pickens-unfollows-pittsburgh-steelers-on-instagram-amid-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=43497","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: George Pickens unfollows Pittsburgh Steelers on Instagram amid trade rumors.."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/ybmedia\/image\/upload\/c_crop,h_600,w_1067,x_67,y_0\/c_fill,f_auto,h_900,q_auto,w_1600\/v1\/m\/4\/8\/487e73544eb4139da4c3917eca855a8576c36b45\/George-Pickens.jpg\" alt=\"George Pickens unfollows Pittsburgh Steelers on Instagram amid trade rumors\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"ac_100851342\" class=\"article_chunk type_50\">\n<div class=\"froala-view custom-theme first_text_block\">\n<p>As trade rumors swirl,\u00a0George Pickens\u2019\u00a0future with the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0is in question. Amid the reports, he\u00a0unfollowed\u00a0the franchise on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier Wednesday, FOX Sports\u2019 Jordan Schultz\u00a0reported\u00a0Pickens\u2019 name came up in trade discussions ahead of the\u00a02025 NFL Draft. Schultz called the former\u00a0Georgia\u00a0star \u201ca name to watch this week\u201d in the lead-up to the draft, which gets underway Thursday in Green Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Pickens is entering the final year of his rookie contract. Although Pittsburgh isn\u2019t \u201cactively shopping\u201d him, according to Schultz, his name came up in conversations prior to the draft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ac_100851343\" class=\"article_chunk type_51\"><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1915216870313263345&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.on3.com%2Fpro%2Fnews%2Fgeorge-pickens-unfollows-pittsburgh-steelers-instagram-amid-trade-rumors%2F&amp;sessionId=d9af317913517ec824a7ab9594987a98489d7950&amp;siteScreenName=yardbarker&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=500px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-8=\"true\" data-tweet-id=\"1915216870313263345\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/center><\/div>\n<div id=\"ac_100851344\" class=\"article_chunk type_50\">\n<div class=\"froala-view custom-theme \">\n<p>Pickens appeared in 14 games last season as he missed some time with an injury. During that time, he hauled in 59 receptions for 900 yards and three touchdowns as a key piece of the Steelers\u2019 passing attack. That came after an impressive second year in the\u00a0NFL\u00a0in 2023 when he had a career-high 1,140 yards and five touchdowns. His 18.1 yards per reception led the league that season.<\/p>\n<p>At February\u2019s NFL Scouting Combine, Steelers general manager Omar Khan declined to discuss specifics of Pickens\u2019 next contract. However, he said the exit meeting after the 2024 season was a positive one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a really solid exit meeting with GP, and I can tell you that he has a desire to be great,\u201d Khan\u00a0said. \u201cHe has a desire to be great here. We have a desire for him to be great and to be great here, with respect to the contract. We won\u2019t discuss that publicly and usually those things are addressed at a later date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>George Pickens is expected to maintain an important role in Pittsburgh, although the franchise made a big move this offseason.\u00a0DK Metcalf\u00a0is on his way in after the Steelers acquired him from the Seattle Seahawks, and he signed a lucrative five-year contract after the deal went through.<\/p>\n<p>The expectation is Metcalf and Pickens will form an exciting duo in Pittsburgh. However, there are still questions at the quarterback position ahead of the draft. The Steelers are considered the favorite to land free agent\u00a0Aaron Rodgers, although no deal has come together with less than 24 hours to go until Draft Day. There\u2019s also a chance Pittsburgh could draft a quarterback over the weekend, and ESPN\u2019s Peter Schrager projected the franchise to pick\u00a0Shedeur Sanders\u00a0out of\u00a0Colorado\u00a0with the No. 21 overall pick in his\u00a0intel-based mock draft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As trade rumors swirl,\u00a0George Pickens\u2019\u00a0future with the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0is in question. Amid the reports, he\u00a0unfollowed\u00a0the franchise on Instagram. Earlier Wednesday, FOX Sports\u2019 Jordan Schultz\u00a0reported\u00a0Pickens\u2019 name came up in&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: George Pickens unfollows Pittsburgh Steelers on Instagram amid trade rumors.. - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=43497\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: George Pickens unfollows Pittsburgh Steelers on Instagram amid trade rumors.. - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As trade rumors swirl,\u00a0George Pickens\u2019\u00a0future with the\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0is in question. 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