The Pittsburgh Steelers got to work looking for ways to improve the team from 2023 as soon as the season ended. They parted ways with some coaches, released some players, and made a few new hires. Among those new hires was Wide Receivers Coach Zach Azzanni. Azzanni has been with three other NFL teams – the Chicago Bears, the Denver Broncos, and most recently, the New York Jets. He comes with a reputation for passion and an expectation of excellence. According to one former Steelers player, he might have been almost hand-picked with one player in mind.
Before coaching in the NFL, Azzanni coached at the college level and the last school he was with was the University of Tennessee. He helped with the recruitment of future Volunteers and was their passing game coordinator / wide receivers coach. He developed a reputation as a guy who doesn’t take any nonsense from players and this helped boost his career.
Now one former Steelers offensive lineman, who is also a former Volunteer, spoke up about why he thinks the team chose him as the coach and if some of the rumors about receivers’ behaviors factored in.
Ramon Foster played guard for the Steelers for 11 seasons and now co-hosts a podcast with Pittsburgh sports reporter Dejan Kovacevic that airs on DK Pittsburgh Sports called The Ramon Foster Show. Foster has connections with both Tennessee and the Steelers. He’s spoken quite a bit on his show about the offensive changes the team is making and the ones the team still needs to make.
“There’s been conversation around how to rein in George Pickens and what better way than to get a guy that can match his intensity and garner some of his respect. I don’t think George Pickens is problematic, but you have to cater to the room as far as finding someone that can match his energy and his level of growing up. I don’t say that disrespectfully.”
During the 2023 season, the Steelers’ two top wide receivers, Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, got a lot of attention for their behavior versus their gameplay. While both of the young players have an incredible amount of talent and potential, their off-field antics frustrated fans and overshadowed anything good they produced.
Both were seen at times pouting on the sideline and frequently complained about their lack of targets. Pickens even took to social media to create a stir and made comments about not blocking for teammate Jaylen Warren that had people riled up. Supposedly Pickens has amassed over $200,000 in fines and those are just the ones we know about. Johnson got so heated at one point, he nearly came to blows with teammate Minkah Fitzpatrick and had to be separated.
Foster added that the University of Georgia, where Pickens went to college, is known to have something like “handlers” for their players. They are people who make sure the players get to class on time, make it to team meetings, etc. While he doesn’t think that Azzanni has been brought in to “handle” Pickens, he does think that this is a good move for the receiving corps. Kovacevic said that it is clear this is really “all about George” and Foster agrees.
“You’ll see some benefit out of George Pickens moving forward and everybody else in that room. It’s a young room, but it’s about George,” said Foster.
Kovacevic said it was remarkable to him how much we saw Pickens improve when he was getting fed the ball more when Mason Rudolph was quarterback. To him, it appeared that Pickens wasn’t the one trick pony he always thought he was. Foster agreed and said that it is not uncommon for Head Coach Mike Tomlin to flat-out tell players that he needs more.
“That’s what Coach Tomlin said. I’ve seen him tell Martavis [Bryant] that, I’ve seen him tell Mike Wallace that, I’ve seen him tell Diontae [Johnson]. ‘Hey, I need something different, you’re a good one trick pony, but I need something different.’ George even said that at the beginning of the ’23 season, ‘I have to expand my role’ and he did it.”
That expansion of his role and his improved gameplay really began with the firing of former Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada according to Kovacevic. Canada did not know how to effectively use a weapon like Pickens.
The Steelers also hiring new Offensive Coordinator Arthur Smith had fans thinking that Tomlin was planning to instill some discipline in these young players. Smith is known to be tough, but fair and Azzanni will hopefully be an extension of that. While there are still questions to be answered, like who will be the starting quarterback, the team must have the backbone in place for those players.
