Overall, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens had an impressive 2022 rookie season. After all, the Georgia product made quite a few nice catches in 2022 on his way to registering 52 of them for 801 yards and four touchdowns. Obviously, Pickens will be expected to make a healthy jump in his play in 2023 and on Wednesday, Steelers wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson made it clear where the team expects to see the second-year player improve in his game.
“We’re hoping to add to his repertoire,” Jackson said, according to Mike Prisuta of Steelers.com. “Last year he showed the vertical part of his game. He has a lot more to his game. Hopefully, this year we can get him doing a bunch more of what he’s capable of doing. We gotta get him to be better after the catch. He’s gotta be able to take a slant and go 60 (yards) with it.”
Yards after the catch is a real interesting topic when it comes to Pickens — mainly because the entire Steelers offense needs to get way better in that area in 2023. As for Pickens, he averaged just 2.30 yards post-catch in 2022. Thankfully, however, Pickens helped make up for that deficiency in his game by registering a 13.1 yards average length of air yards per catch in 2022. That stat helps back up Jackson’s comments about the vertical part of Pickens’ game as a rookie.
In case any of you are curious, Pickens averaged 3.71 yards after the catch in his three seasons at Georgia. That was, however, based on him only having 90 total receptions at Georgia. He’s already had more than half that number of catches in the NFL.
As for Pickens possibly getting more slant and run-after-the-catch opportunities in his second NFL season, personally, I’m excited to see if that can be accomplished. Last season Pickens ran slants 20 times in total, according to Sports Info Solutions. He was targeted three times on slant routes in 2022, and he caught two of those for 20 yards with 8 of those coming after the catch.
While at Georgia, Pickens wasn’t used often on slants. He ran that particular route just 32 times over a span of three seasons and had eight receptions for 98 yards and three touchdowns on 11 targets. Fifty of those yards came after the catch, however.
When Pickens entered the NFL last season, he did so as a raw route runner overall. Because of that, it’s not overly surprising that he was mostly used as a vertical threat as a rookie. He’s an immensely talented player for sure but it’s obvious that the Steelers want him to become a more well-rounded wide receiver in 2023.
“He showed one part of his game last year,” Jackson said of Pickens. “We’re working and improving the other parts of his game.”
