Big things are expected of George Pickens, the second-year wide receiver out of Georgia. Following an admirable rookie year dominated by highlight-reel plays in search of greater consistency in between them, offensive coordinator Matt Canada and the Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping find ways to get him open more to keep being the playmaker he is.
“The more you can do, the harder you are to cover”, Canada said, via the team’s website. “It comes back to what you’re good at, and there’s only so many plays in a game, so you’ve got to find those plays to put him in those spots where he can make plays. As he continues to do that, I think he’ll continue to ascend and be an elite receiver, because we do believe, talent-wise, he has that capability”.
The 52nd-overall pick last year, Pickens played in every game, starting 12, accumulating 882 snaps on offense. He drew 84 targets on offense, hauling in 52 of them, a percentage made more impressive by the fact that his targets came an average of 14.5 yards down the field, the highest among all players in the NFL last season who caught 50 or more passes.
And the Steelers certainly don’t want to take away from him what he does best, which is running down the field and putting his body in position to make plays on the ball. As long as the pass comes within his radius, he has about a two out of three chance of coming down with it, based on his rookie numbers.
Or, as Canada put it, “If somebody covers him one-on-one, we feel good about the odds”.
Pickens had the third-most receptions on deep passing targets last season, catching 16 passes on throws of 20-plus air yards. Only Tyreek Hill (19) and Justin Jefferson (17) had more, but he did it on just 30 targets. His 53.3 percent catch percentage on deep targets was the third-highest of the top 25 players in deep catches last year, behind only Jefferson and Jaylen Waddle. And his nine contested catches on those deep targets was the most, tied with A.J. Brown.
But, again, the overarching point is that the Steelers need him to make more plays, and that partly falls on him. Too much of his success last year relied on hero ball, so they need to help him get in more positions to make plays, and help him help himself get open.
To his credit, he has talked about working on his route-running this offseason, and teammates have noticed and commented on it. If he can turn himself into even a slightly above-average route runner, he can be a very deadly weapon.
And he has two very good resources at his disposal in Diontae Johnson and Allen Robinson II, both of whom have a knack, albeit in different ways, of finding the open spots of the field. Robinson and Pickens have been talking a lot of ball this offseason, so hopefully that rubs off on him.
