Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens had one of the more limited route trees in the league as a rookie last season, and it’s something he said he wants to work on heading into his second season. Ahead of the team’s second training camp practice, Pickens told reporters that he thinks his route tree will “evolve a lot” in 2023.
“What’s crazy is I already feel like, myself personally, I can already run every route,” Pickens said via Steelers.com. “It’s just putting me in more opportunity to get there.”
Last season, Pickens’ primary route was a go route which led to him winning a lot of 50-50 balls down the sideline. As a whole, the Steelers’ offense avoided the middle of the field, something that needs to change in 2023. If it does change, Pickens could see an increased role on slants and posts.
Over 30 percent of Pickens’ routes were go routes last season, and while he was successful on over 50 percent of them, it’s not a truly sustainable path to being a top receiver. He ran a slant on just 10.7 percent routes of his routes, and that’s a number I’d like to see increase as Matt Canada tries to open the playbook and expand their offense a little bit.
He’s a big receiver, and he can have success making plays over the middle. If his route tree does expand, as it should and he believes it will, more in-routes are likely. He’s going to have to show he can beat defenders within the first step or two, and not just with his long speed, but it’s a clear priority that he’s focused on this offseason.
That also increases the potential for him to gain more yards after the catch, something Pittsburgh’s offense badly needs, especially out of Pickens. Just running fly routes down the sideline really limited his ability to make a play with the ball after the catch, but if he gets the ball in space Pickens could be dangerous with it. It’ll help Kenny Pickett and make the Steelers’ offense a lot better.
Obviously, we won’t know with certainty how much Pickens’ route tree will really expand until we see him in a live game. But he did the little things right on the first day of training camp, improving on a lot of stuff that he was weaker with last season. It’s a good sign for his production this season and I’m hoping that he can take a bigger role in the offense in his second season.
