When it comes to playing fantasy football, one should always be on the lookout for potential sleepers and breakout candidates.
These are often younger players heading into their second or third seasons that project to make a leap forward given more time and experience in the league as well as older veterans that are entering better situations to have more production in the stat sheet compared to years past.
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report recently ranked his top seven underrated WRs for the 2023 fantasy football season and put Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens at #4 on the list as a player he expects a lot from in his second season.
“As a rookie, the Georgia product caught 52 passes for 802 yards and four touchdowns and ranked 13th leaguewide in yards per target (9.5),” Knox wrote. “He did that while playing with a rookie quarterback in Kenny Pickett and playing in a conservative and vanilla Matt Canada offense. If Pickett can make a second-year leap—which seems reasonable given his strong play down the stretch in 2022—Pickens could be set to explode.”
Pickens has the prototype size, speed, and athleticism you look for in a perimeter WR in the NFL, having made some ridiculous contested catches during his time at the University of Georgia. That combative-catch ability followed him into the league, with Pickens being one of the best at the metric as a rookie last season. Still, Pickens is raw when it comes to route running and generating separation at the top of his route, something he needs to get better at if he indeed wants to take the leap he his fully capable of in his sophomore campaign.
While the Steelers appear to be embracing a run-heavy offensive attack and have weapons like Allen Robinson II, Calvin Austin III, and Darnell Washington on the team that weren’t there last season to soak up targets, Pickens still is a legit threat to surpass the 1,000-yard mark in 2023 as he and QB Kenny Pickett progress together. Generating more YAC and becoming a more well-rounded WR will be key points of emphasis to make this a reality, but Pickens could end up being quite the fantasy sleeper team managers should target in the middle rounds of their fantasy football drafts.
“Pickens will still have to compete with the likes of Diontae Johnson and Pat Freiermuth for targets, but he has the potential to emerge as Pickett’s go-to target in 2023,” Knox wrote. “It would be a surprise if Pickens doesn’t have 1,000-yard season, and it wouldn’t be a total shock to see him crack the top 10 in fantasy production.”
