George Pickens is HIM
CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 22: George Pickens #14 of the Pittsburgh Steelers makes a one handed catch ahead of Martin Emerson Jr. #23 of the Cleveland Browns during the second quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 22, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)
That’s it, I've seen enough! George Pickens can BALL!
We all watched the same games last year. By the end of the 2022 season, I think most of us were aware that George Pickens is criminally underutilized in the Steelers offense. Blame it on Kenny Pickett, blame it on Matt Canada, blame this take on the alcohol. Place your blame where you see fit, but G.P. needs the ball more often.
Pickens finished the 2022 season with 52 catches for 801 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie. His 801 receiving yards ranked 38th in the NFL. One bright spot in his 2022 campaign was his 15.4 yards per catch, which ranked 10th in the NFL. The kid is a deep ball savant. The Steelers ranked in the bottom half of the league last year, in completions over 20 yards downfield. G.P. accounted for about 39% of those completions. Given the number of weapons we have in our receiver and tight end rooms, that’s an impressive figure. Still, we need to see more of that in 2023 if this team is going to be successful.
Mike Florio echoed these sentiments on his show for the NFL on CBS: “Pickett had 47 throws of 20 or more yards down the field…Third-fewest behind Dak Prescott and Kyler Murray. This is a quarterback who took at least 50 percent of the snaps and Pickett had 12 percent of his passes go 20 yards or longer. Mitch Trubisky had 17 percent during the time that he was playing. So get the ball down field, get it to George Pickens. That’s what I wanna see.” Florio then said, "I've seen enough from George Pickens to put him in the category of if he is covered, then he is still not covered. You have to have two guys on Pickens."
If Kenny Pickett is going to take that second-year leap that most of us are predicting, George Pickens is going to be a significant component in making that happen.
G.P. is a top five receiving talent in the league, right now. It remains to be seen if there’s enough balls to go around in this loaded, young offense that just added an absolute UNIT named Darnell Washington in the 2023 NFL draft. Still, I suspect that his impact in significant moments will have the rest of the league on notice. What do yinz think?
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