Big Ben: Calling out WR George Pickens 'a good step' for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin

When it was suggested on the DVE Morning Show that Ben Roethlisberger has experience dealing with wide receivers with “behavioral issues,” the Pittsburgh Steelers great applauded coach Mike Tomlin by saying “it was a good step” to call out George Pickens after he drew a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at Cincinnati.

On a guest appearance Tuesday morning on 102.5 FM, Roethlisberger also called the Steelers offensive line the team’s “unsung heroes,” said quarterback Russell Wilson deserves credit for his comeback season, questioned why Mike Williams wasn’t targeted more against the Cleveland Browns and said James Harrison spotted a tell by a Browns offensive lineman Sunday.

Roethlisberger played with his share of mercurial wide receivers in his 18 seasons as the Steelers quarterback, most notably four-time All-Pro Antonio Brown, so he was impressed to see Tomlin publicly criticize Pickens for his personal-foul penalties. After Pickens was flagged first for taunting and then for mimicking shooting a gun in the 44-38 win over the Bengals, Tomlin said he “has to grow up in a hurry.”

“Well, when you’ve got Broderick Jones taking care of that, I think we’re good. The voice of reason,” Roethlisberger said with a chuckle. “Obviously, those two know each other. I thought when Coach T came out last week after the game and said it’s unacceptable or ‘he needs to grow up’ — I forget what his exact words were — I thought that was a good step for Coach T. You needed to have that. You needed to have the coach step up and say that because we’ve got to nip that in the bud now, you know?”

With Pickens missing Sunday’s 27-14 win over the Browns with a hamstring injury, Roethlisberger was surprised the Steelers didn’t take more downfield shots with veteran Mike Williams. Acquired from the New York Jets at the trade deadline, Williams was targeted four times and had three receptions for 36 yards, including a 22-yarder.

Asked what Roethlisberger would do if facing a Browns defense that had 10 players at the line of scrimmage and his receiving options were Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller and Ben Skowronek, Roethlisberger said he was screaming for the Steelers to “take a shot down the field.”

“Ask coach, ‘Where’s Mike Williams?’ ” Roethlisberger said. “I was screaming at our offense because the safety most of the game was like 8, 9 yards deep. I’m like, ‘Take a shot! Somebody, like, come on!’ …

“So I thought going into this game, ‘OK, with George down, this will be a great opportunity for them to really see Mike Williams. Let’s get him in there and really develop into what I think they need is a true No. 2.’ They didn’t. They took a couple shots but not as much as I thought they would have or should have in this game.”

Roethlisberger had high praise for the offensive line that includes rookies in center Zach Frazier and right guard Mason McCormick and a second-year player in right tackle Jones.

Roethlisberger expected the Steelers defense to be a strength but considered quarterback and offensive line to be concerns, especially after center Nate Herbig, right guard James Daniels and first-round pick Troy Fautanu were lost early in the season to injuries.

“To me, I think what Coach T has done with the question marks coming into the season has been really impressive,” Roethlisberger said. “To me, the unsung heroes of this team so far is the offensive line. … I’m not saying they’re the best O-line in the business or this, that and the other, but they’re consistent. Their help in the run game is good enough at times — sometimes it’s great; yeah, there’s issues with when you get Myles Garrett coming around the outside in Cleveland but, shoot, he’s going to do that all the time anyway — but, all in all, the way that the line has played and the cohesiveness of that group, to me, is the reason for their success.”

Roethlisberger also said Wilson has dispelled doubts about whether he was done after two disastrous seasons in Denver. When told Wilson is “getting his flowers” after passing for 414 yards against the Bengals and throwing two touchdown passes against the Browns, Roethlisberger replied: “Deservedly so.”

“The problem is, the narrative coming in is Denver, what he went through in Denver and them paying him essentially to not be there,” Roethlisberger said of the Steelers paying only $1.21 million of his $39 million salary this season. “They’re paying him a lot of money not to be there, which is crazy, right? That’s obviously going to set its own storyline ahead of him to get here. …

“Obviously, there’s going to be some question: OK, what Russ are we going to get? As you get older, we’re not seeing Russ do the things he did in Seattle, where he was extending plays for long periods of time and utilizing his legs, but that’s just normal as you become a little bit of an older quarterback. Listen, he still has it between the ears. He’s still a very smart football player. He still has an arm. He can still throw the ball down the field. And he can do enough with his legs that we saw last week where he can scramble to get you a couple of yards, he can get out of pressures.”

Roethlisberger said he wasn’t as concerned as others about Wilson, adding, “I felt like Russ had it, you know?”

As for Harrison, Roethlisberger said the Super Bowl champion teammates sat together at Sunday’s game and the former Steelers outside linebacker saw in the first series that a Browns lineman was tipping whether it was a run or pass play. Roethlisberger said Harrison was “100% correct” in predicting calls.

“To be that accurate with it, it was uncanny,” Roethlisberger said. “It was unbelievable.”

Roethlisberger laughed about how Harrison was fuming that the Steelers hadn’t picked up the cue or heard him voicing his frustrations.

“In the fourth quarter, James Harrison is still screaming — at me, for some reason — ‘It’s a run! Why is nobody listening to me?’” Roethlisberger said. “I’m like, ‘James, what do you want me to do? I believe you!’ He wanted me to phone down to the sideline. ‘How do we get in touch with T.J. (Watt).’ I’m like, ‘You have his phone (number). Maybe he’ll check his phone at halftime.’ I don’t know. What do you want me to do?

“I told James, I said honestly, ‘If you ran out of the tunnel right now to the sideline, who’s stopping you? Who’s going to stop you? Just go down.’”