George Pickens had a rough game on Thursday night, followed by a bizarre social media post on Friday.
The Steelers wide receiver, who posted minus-1 yard during Pittsburgh’s “Thursday Night Football” win over the Titans, shared a video on a since-deleted Instagram story while writing what appeared to be a cryptic message.
Under the video, Pickens wrote the words “Free me.”
As of Friday evening, the Instagram account associated with Pickens removed all photos tagged of him, no longer had a profile picture and only kept one actual post in the feed —an edited video of highlights during his University of Georgia days.
Thursday night’s game was a rough one for the 22-year-old, who finished the game with just two catches.
Along with the low stat total, he also missed out on a go-ahead touchdown in the second half when he got one foot down but failed to drag a second one down before going out of bounds.
It’s been a tough two weeks for Pickens, who finished with just one catch and 22 yards during a loss to the Jaguars in Week 8.
This came after back-to-back games where he hauled in 100-plus yards, the first time he’d done that in his NFL career.
After Pickens’ rough out against Jacksonville, head coach Mike Tomlin broke down why the star wideout was kept in check.
“They were playing two-on-one football,” he said on his YouTube show on the Steelers’ channel. “And really, that’s a good sign to be quite honest with you. We are experienced with that. We’ve had dynamic receivers here in the past that have garnered that type of attention, and usually, it just makes the sledding much easier for others, whether it’s the passing game or opportunities in the running game.”
Despite Pickens’ low production the last two weeks, the Steelers sit at 5-3 and in second place of the AFC North.