Even if it's only to use him as a decoy it seems like he should be on the field more. Or, ya know, setup a play action for him?
I dunno. If the Steelers had this dominate running game and the WR was the key to it, OK. But they don't. It's just as mediocre as it was last year and none of their WR are particularly good at blocking.
Exactly. The running game needs all the help it can get and, while I believe Derrick Bell that the problems are personnel and execution rather than scheme when he's pulling clips of this team failing to run with 6 blockers vs a light box, getting Pickens out there as a decoy can still help. Or, since the passing game is doing more work than the running game, maybe pass it more (which means pass it to Pickens more).
Or maybe get him out there in 13 and see what you can set up. Nobody here would be interested to see whether you can could get Pickens on a 1 on 1 with open space to run into when another team has to go heavy to match 3 tight ends?
These are all ways to more out of a guy who, by his peers' standards, is not crazy involved. On an offence that is, by its peers' standards, not crazy good. We'd laugh if a team we were facing pulled this on us.
he's playing against two guys every play. i like that they are keeping him fresh.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about the need to keep WRs fresh before. I don't think he's playing against two guys every play either.