Can you envision Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett being reunited with wide receiver Jordan Addison, his former college teammate for a few seasons at the University of Pittsburgh? While none of us know if that will ultimately happen, Addison, who transferred to USC last season, is expected to declare for the 2023 NFL Draft soon, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.
On Wednesday, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that Addison’s ankle injury that has been bothering him this season is not considered serious or long term. Even so, the USC wide receiver will reportedly skip the team’s Cotton Bowl game against Tulane due to his injury and is then expected declare for the NFL draft in the coming days.
Over 11 games in 2022, Addison caught 59 passes for 875 yards and eight touchdowns at USC. He played the first two seasons of his college career for Pittsburgh before transferring to USC after the 2021 season.
In 2021, Addison won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver when he had 100 receptions for 1,593 yards and 17 scores while at Pittsburgh. Overall, Addison has 219 catches for 3,134 yards and 29 touchdowns in three college seasons.
Should Addison indeed declare for the 2023 NFL Draft, many draftniks strongly believe that he will be at least one of the top five wide receivers selected. The Steelers currently own the 14th and 33rd overall selections in the draft entering Week 16 of the 2022 regular season. That could obviously change in the final three weeks of the season.
If the Steelers were to ultimately pick Addison in the 2023 NFL Draft, it’s easy to speculate that they would need to take him with one of their first two selections, assuming he is still on the board at the time.
There are currently quite a few college quarterback-wide receiver connections playing in the NFL together. The notable ones include Joe Burrow and Ja’marr Chase with the Cincinnati Bengals, Derek Carr and Davante Adams with the Las Vegas Raiders and Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith with the Philadelphia Eagles.
While we wait for Addison to make his final decision, you can bet that talk about him potentially reuniting with Pickett in Pittsburgh will pick up very soon should he ultimately decide to declare as an underclassman.
