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90 In 30: Steelers 2022 Training Camp Preview Series: Gunner Olszewski, Chris Owens, George Pickens

By Dave Bryan

Posted on June 30, 2022 at 11:45 am

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2022 offseason practices concluded last week, and next up for the team is their annual training camp, which should get underway in the latter part of July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of Steelers’ training camp getting underway, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time for you as part of a 30-post series. This Steelers’ roster preview, which includes outlooks for each player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow along with.

The next three players we will preview ahead of Steelers training camp are Gunner Olszewski, Chris Owens, and George Pickens.

WR Gunner Olszewski: The Steelers signed Olszewski, a former undrafted free agent out of Bemidji State University, to a two-year, $4.2 million contract back in March and he received a $1.235 million signing bonus as part of that deal. In his three previous seasons with the New England Patriots, Olszewski returned 66 punts for 834 yards and a touchdown, with a long of 70 yards in regular season action. He also has returned 36 total kickoffs to date in the NFL for 834 yards, with a long of 37 yards. He was named a First-Team All-Pro in 2020 for his efforts that season. Beefing up Olszewski’s resume is the fact that he had 10 career special teams tackles in the NFL to date with seven of those coming during the 2021 season. Olszewski, while listed as a wide receiver, has all of nine receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown in his first three NFL seasons.

Outlook: Olszewski’s resume to date obviously screams a returner role with the Steelers first and foremost. That’s his primary path to the Steelers 53-man roster. How he develops as a wide receiver this summer will be interesting to watch as he has not played that position much at the NFL level. 253 offensive snaps to date with just nine receptions speaks volumes. Should Olszewski get any playing time on offense with the Steelers in 2022, they could come at various wide receiver positions as he has played both inside and outside in his three previous seasons. The Steelers have two experienced wide receivers in Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool and two drafted rookies in George Pickens and Calvin Austin III. In short, Olszewski seeing a lot of playing time on offense in 2022 would likely be the result of several injuries happening. The Steelers expectations in 2022 are for him to be an All-Pro returner.

C Chris Owens: The Steelers had ten original undrafted free agents that they signed this year and Owens, an Alabama product, was one of them. In college, he showed to be versatile offensive lineman with most of his snaps coming at right tackle and center. With Owens measuring in at his offseason pro day at 6025, 300-pounds, he’s likely seen his last snaps at tackle. He saw limited action early in college career at guard so there is some experience at that position on his resume.

Outlook: Once training camp gets underway in late July, Owens won’t have a lot of time to show the Steelers how position versatile he can be. Buried on the depth chart right now, it will be quite an accomplishment if Owens stays on the offseason roster past the team’s second preseason game. In reality, Owens’ best shot at hanging around come Week 1 of the 2022 regular season includes him showing enough to warrant being signed to the team’s practice squad. That would be a huge accomplishment by him if he achieves such a summer outcome.

WR George Pickens: The Steelers selected Pickens in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Georgia and that did not come as a huge surprise due to the pre-draft interest they showed in him. At Georgia, Pickens caught 90 passes for 1,347 yards and 14 touchdowns in 24 games played. Most of his 2021 season at Georgia was wiped out due to an ACL injury but he was able to return for the National Championship game and that was impressive on his part. He still only managed five receptions for 107 yards in 2021, however. If not for his knee injury, there’s a good chance that Pickens would have wound up being selected in the first round of this year’s draft. He’s a big wide receiver that can play like a small wide receiver when needed. Most of his college snaps came at the X position. That said, he does have some limited experience playing the Z position and in the slot as well.

Outlook: The Steelers hope to get Pickens up to speed as quickly as possible during his rookie 2022 season. Even so, the young wide receiver only played a little more than 1,000 offensive snaps in his three seasons at Georgia so there might be a steep learning curve when it comes to his development. That’s roughly one full NFL season of snaps that he played in college. If Pickens can quickly adjust to NFL play and the Steelers offense, his playing time as a rookie could exceed 700 total snaps. That might be his ceiling barring injuries, however. Early in training camp, we should get an idea as to what position Pickens is best suited for out of the chute. Will they move him around? Will he see some time in the slot? The Steelers already have a primary X wide receiver in Diontae Johnson so that’s worth noting. From a production standpoint in 2022, Pickens finishing his rookie season with more than 45 receptions would seem to be a huge achievement on his part. He’s a physical player and not afraid to block so he should be an asset to the offense in the running game whenever he’s on the field. Pickens should become a fulltime and primetime player for the Steelers eventually. The big question right now is, will he become a fulltime and primetime player during his rookie season?

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