George Pickens thinks he was snubbed in the Pro Bowl voting last year. He thinks that he is the best wide receiver—in the world. He talked about internal frustrations waiting on the Pittsburgh Steelers and QB Kenny Pickett to start fully trusting him and throwing the ball to him even when he’s not traditionally “open”.
But George Pickens ultimately isn’t about himself. He may be supremely confident in his abilities and in his belief that throwing to him is always a good idea, but at root, it’s all motivated by the simple desire to win football games. It helps that he already learned what that felt like in college.
“Me personally, I’m a huge team guy after I won a few championships at Georgia and I got the feeling of that”, he told Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show recently when asked what his goal was for this season. “My biggest goal, to be honest, is just to try to help the team get to a Super Bowl”.
Pickens technically won one national championship with the Georgia Bulldogs in his final season in college, but they won a bowl game each of his three years there. It was the Sugar Bowl in 2019 and the Peach Bowl in 2020 before winning the Orange Bowl and College Football Playoff National Championship in 2021. They won again in 2022 after he left.
And he wants to get that taste back in his mouth with the Steelers. Sure, if you keep pressing him, he’ll tell you that he’d like to get 1,000 receiving yards and make the Pro Bowl, but really, he just wants to win, and keep winning, until he’s got a trophy to hoist.
I believe every great wide receiver has supreme confidence in his abilities and a desire to be thrown the ball in all circumstances. Not all of them will say it, but I’m sure privately Larry Fitzgerald felt many of the same things Pickens was willing to say out loud. And I’m not sure the distinction in this case is significant. The only difference is the discussion that follows.
Nobody would accuse Fitzgerald of not being a team-first player, however, even at the height of his stardom when he was consistently commanding 150-plus targets per year and making the Pro Bowl and All-Pro lists annually.
We still have to see how Pickens’ career plays out, both in production and in legacy, but I have no reason to question the sincerity of his team-first mindset. In the same interview, he talked about how he chose Georgia because he wanted to be on a team that could beat Alabama, even though he’s from Alabama.
He wants to win games. He believes he can help the Steelers win games. It’s why he plays the game. A 1,000-yard Pro Bowl season would certainly help Pittsburgh out in that regard.
