The 11th wide receiver off the board in the 2022 NFL Draft might honestly be the most overlooked and underrated of the talented crop, and he happens to reside in the Steel City.
Selected 52nd overall in April by then-GM Kevin Colbert, University of Georgia star receiver George Pickens has transitioned very well to the NFL, looking like a bonafide star for the Pittsburgh Steelers at the receiver position, an area in which the black and gold seem to excel when it comes to identifying and landing talent on the roster.
Throughout much of his first training camp with the Steelers at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pickens was the star of the show, making play after play each and every day, creating a ton of buzz and overall hype around him in a loaded receiver room overall. That performance in training camp has transitioned into preseason games. In three games, Pickens hauled in eight receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown on 12 targets, grading out at a 76.5 in the preseason for the Steelers.
New GM Omar Khan, appearing on the All Things Covered podcast for CBS Sports with former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden, talked about just how pleased not only he, but the Steelers organization as a whole, is with Pickens’ development and overall growth with the franchise.
“Well, time will tell with that. We feel great about George and his progression and what he’s brought to the team, what he brings on the field,” Khan said to McFadden, according to audio via the All Things Covered podcast page on YouTube. “And obviously he’s an exciting player. You guys have seen that at practice. But… we have to play our first game yet. We haven’t played a regular season game yet, so we’ll see how things go. But we think the future’s bright for George with the Steelers and think he’s gonna add some great things.
“He’s gonna add some great things to us and our offense and some dynamic things. And you know, we’ll see where it goes.”
Pickens has already added some great things to the Steelers’ offense in training camp and through three preseason games. As Khan states though, the Steelers have yet to play a regular season game, which will bring game planning and more plays within the offensive scheme under second-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada available after keeping it relatively vanilla in the preseason.
With his combination of height, weight, speed and strength, Pickens appears to be the total package at the position, which makes it all the more remarkable he fell to No. 52 overall into the lap of the Steelers.
