The Pittsburgh Steelers appear set to have an embarrassment of riches in their receiver corps compared to a season ago, having WRs Diontae Johnson and George Pickens returning along with Allen Robinson II being added to the team this offseason as well as Calvin Austin III coming back from a season-ending injury in 2022. Pittsburgh drafted TE Darnell Washington this spring to add to a group that already consists of Pat Freiermuth, Connor Heyward, and Zach Gentry, giving QB Kenny Pickett plenty of weapons to pick apart opposing defenses.
Since 2020, Diontae Johnson has functioned as Pittsburgh’s WR1, accumulating 144, 169, and 147 targets in the last three seasons, respectively. He’s only posted one 1,000-yard campaign during that span but has shown that he can function as a high-volume target in Pittsburgh’s passing game, using his refined route running to get open and draw targets at a large rate.
However, Johnson’s reign as Pittsburgh’s alpha WR looks to be challenged this season by none other than George Pickens. The second-year wideout burst onto the scene as a rookie, making spectacular catches on a regular occurrence, showcasing impressive body control, strong hands, and leaping ability to come down with combative catches in tough coverage. As the 2022 season wore on, Pickens began to move around a lot more in the formation, lining up in the slot and exploiting coverages for more chunk plays.
Pickens has improved as a route runner this offseason according to his quarterback, showing more nuance coming out of his breaks and properly setting up defenders to get into open grass. Even when he’s not considered “open” Pickens lobbies that he is always open as we saw just a couple days ago when he made an absurd catch on CB Joey Porter Jr. along the sideline with Porter in perfect position.
While Diontae Johnson will likely be Pittsburgh’s WR1 from a target perspective again this season, I’d argue that Pickens will become Pittsburgh’s alpha WR in nearly every other category. George Pickens saw only 84 targets as a rookie last season compared to 147 targets for Johnson, but Pickens managed to turn those targets into 801 yards (15.4 YPR) and five total TDs. Johnson, on the other hand, managed only 882 yards (10.3 YPR) on those targets and got blanked from the TD category in 2022.
While Johnson’s route tree didn’t allow for much YAC and he should expect to see a positive regression in TDs this season, it should be fair to assume that Pickens will only get better as well now in his second season. Pickens performed poorly in YAC as well as a rookie, and getting more yards after the catch on deep shots from Pickett could lead to explosive plays to spike his yardage totals. When it comes to TDs, Pickens is more of your ideal red zone threat, having the size, length, athleticism, hands, and body control to come down with some of the toughest grabs against quality competition.
There is no denying that Johnson is a more refined receiver when it comes to his route running than Pickens is at this stage of his career, but Pickens is ascending as a young player who is only scratching the surface of what he can become. When you think of a team’s alpha receiver, you think about the guy you are going to with one down to make the catch to either get the first down or score the TD.
For the longest time in Pittsburgh, that was a guy like Santonio Holmes or Antonio Brown. While Johnson has a case for this classification thanks to his route running prowess, I’m picking Pickens easily. Simply put, George Pickens has that “it” factor that Diontae Johnson doesn’t, and 2023 is the year everyone is going to see it on fully display.
