THE STEELERS PROBLEM IS ...

I highly doubt that Minkah Fitzpatrick and T.J. Watt meant to indict themselves or their coach with their recent commentaries on teammates, but that is precisely what they did.

When you tell the world (or at least Rich Eisen) that you have teammates who are giving less than their best — euphemism for “quitting on us” — then you’re also saying one of two things and maybe both are true:

1: We’re failing as team leaders.

2: The head coach is failing to reach such players.

We don’t need a private investigator to surmise that one of the players in question is receiver George Pickens, who can’t admit that he quit (again) on a play against the Colts.

Earlier this season, after Pickens could not admit that he was livid with his lack of targets, that he’d moped after teammate Diontae Johnson scored a touchdown and that he’d scrubbed all Steelers references from his Instagram page, Tomlin called the situation “a pebble in my shoe.”

That pebble has become The Rock of George-bralter.

Tomlin acknowledged Monday that he had a problem with Pickens barely moving on a goal-line run by Jaylen Warren on Saturday. Pickens on Tuesday defended his action. He told reporters they have no idea what they’re talking about and that he didn’t block on the play because he feared injury.

How do you think that must sit with teammates?

How should that sit with the head coach?

If a problem can only be addressed if it’s acknowledged, then Pickens clearly doesn’t believe he has a problem. He doesn’t believe he did anything wrong. Not now and not earlier this season. Whatever anybody has said to him in the locker room has not worked.

It’s Tomlin’s turn again. He told steelers.com that he met with Pickens leading up to the Colts game. Pickens strangely says he has no memory of such a meeting. Tomlin should make sure he remembers their next interaction, which should go something like this: “You’re not playing against the Bengals.”

Pickens should be de-activated. An unmistakable message must be sent. And if that hurts the team, so be it. You’re playing the long game here, and it’s clear that Pickens just doesn’t get it.

“All the people that’s questioning my effort, they don’t play football,” Pickens told reporters. “All the people that got opinions, they’re media, surface guys. None of them play football.”

Actually, the first person to publicly shred Pickens for his lack of effort was Ben Roethlisberger on his livestream podcast of the game — unless I’m misinterpreting what Roethlisberger meant when he said: “George, block somebody!”

Dorin Dickerson of 93.7 The Fan, who was an All-American at Pitt and later played in the NFL, was a bit more pointed in his critique of Pickens: “Ask any former football player, and they will say his effort is dog (crap).”

It’s truly remarkable to behold the level of denial Pickens displays. In explaining his failure to block on the Warren run, he said he wanted to avoid the kind of injury Houston’s Tank Dell sustained earlier this season. I’ll leave the analysis of that statement to Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus, who tweeted, “That’s straight garbage. Dell went into the teeth of a goal-line formation looking for work. Pickens bailed on his block before the ball comes anywhere near him.”

This was Fitzpatrick, a few weeks earlier, after the dreadful loss to the Patriots, as quoted by ESPN’s Brooke Pryor:

“I think we need to have more people who want to work for it, not expect it to be handed to them. This is the NFL. Nothing’s handed to you. You’ve got to earn everything. I think that dudes just think that because they’re wearing the black and gold, that they’re going to win games, and I think we need to check that mentality and make people realize that they got to earn that mentality.”

Right, so how do the leaders “check that mentality”? It’s only getting worse. Fitzpatrick was coming off a recent spat with Diontae Johnson, the Steelers’ other quitting receiver, so again, I’m not sure we need a forensics team to identify at least one of the guys he was referencing.

It sure seems like Minkah has tried to address these issues by confronting people. Remember, he’s the one who fought Chase Claypool in training camp a few years ago, too. And maybe Watt and Cam Heyward have tried to address them, too. I don’t know. But the way Eisen characterized his conversation with Watt leading up to the Colts game was eye-opening, to say the least.

Eisen said Watt loves playing for Tomlin and sees the coach being a “dynamic leader” trying to inspire his players. And failing in some notable cases.

“It’s ‘wild’ to (Watt) that some of the players upon hearing that (message) don’t respond in a way on a field or on a practice field,” Eisen said. “He used that word, he said it was wild that some of them don’t want to practice is what he said. Or want to practice in a way that everyone is supposed to practice.”

Just a week ago, Eisen was telling Steelers fans they were crazy for wanting a coaching change. That was before he worked the Steelers-Colts debacle.

“I had my own two eyes calling the game,” Eisen said. “And I saw a team that is not responding to this guy.”

Joe Starkey: jstarkey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @joestarkey1. Joe Starkey can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan