The one thing that there were no questions about concerning WR George Pickens as a college prospect coming out of Georgia last season was his talent level. Some had concerns about his health and durability coming off a torn ACL. There were those questioning his maturity. But just watch his highlight reel and it’s hard to turn away, let alone turn down the opportunity to add him to your roster.
Here’s where two ingredients intersect—Pickens demonstrated his great talent during his rookie season for the Pittsburgh Steelers last year, yet not often enough for his tastes in terms of opportunity. There were moments where his emotion got the better of him when he wasn’t getting the ball in spite of the fact that he didn’t appear to be open.
The lesson of this offseason is for QB Kenny Pickett and offensive coordinator Matt Canada to understand, as Pickens told reporters yesterday, one simple reality: “When I’m not open, I’m always open”.
They started to get that over the course of the season as he continued to turn in spectacular low-percentage catches, often climbing the ladder to fight for jump balls or back-shoulder throws. But it was a process, one he’s hoping they’ve already gone through and won’t have to worry about again.
“I encourage that a lot”, he said about communicating that you can still throw the ball to him whether or not he’s ‘open’ in the classic sense. “That’s one of the biggest things I was saying last year that kind of frustrated me a lot, because I’m new coming in so I can’t [say a lot], I can only show you”.
There was never a greater moment of frustration for Pickens during his rookie season than in a win over the Atlanta Falcons in the second half of the season. It was a game in which Atlanta came charging back in the second half, and the rookie wideout wasn’t getting the ball. After his on-field outbursts, he declined interview requests in the locker room.
That wasn’t the beginning, though. He had just one catch for three yards in his NFL debut. Even if it was in a thrilling overtime win against the Cincinnati Bengals, he admitted after the game it wasn’t so easy for him to be so little involved.
Then again, he’s probably just being more honest than most would be in these situations, and I have no problem with honesty. I’m sure there’s a frustrated soul inside of every wide receiver out there—there certainly was in Antonio Brown even though he perennially finished in the top five in targets.
At 84 targets on 583 routes run last season, Pickens was only targeted 14.4 percent of the time he was a viable target on a play. Compare that to Diontae Johnson, who was targeted 141 times on 614 routes run for a target share of 23 percent. While Johnson did a much better job of getting open last year, the Steelers want to work on closing that gap in 2023.
