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George Pickens: Playing time is up to Arthur Smith

Steelers wide receiver George Pickens’s eye black from last Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys caught the attention of the league office and it fed into a larger discussion about the way the Steelers are using Pickens this season.

The NFL is considering a fine for Pickens for violating league policy against displaying any personal messages on uniforms for writing “Open Fucking Always” on his eye black for the Cowboys game. Pickens has been targeted 36 times through five games, which is good for 22nd in the league, and he played a season-low 36 snaps against the Cowboys.

On Thursday, Pickens said “it’s just eye black” in relation to the possibility of a fine and said “yeah” when asked if he feels he’s being used well. He also said that the playing time question is one for offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

“It was just part of a game structure, game plan,” Pickens said, via Nick Farabaugh of PennLive.com. “You know, a lot of players play or something like that. . . . It’s not up to me. It’s up to Art. If Art wants to do a certain type of play or certain types of game plans, it’s going to be different.”

Smith also spoke to reporters on Thursday and said that Pickens’s playing time will vary from week to week while noting that the same was true of players like Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown when he was the offensive coordinator for the Titans. Given the Steelers’ issues putting points on the board, it would be surprising to see him continue to lag behind players like Van Jefferson and Calvin Austin in snaps but we’ll have to wait to see how things play out against the Raiders this weekend.