Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett developed a nice rapport last year with fellow rookie WR George Pickens. As both head into Year Two and look to take their game to the next level, it sounds as if that partnership could also ascend to another level. On Movin’ The Chains with Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan on SiriusXM, Pickett praise Pickens for how he has developed and how smart of a player he is.
“He’s the best athlete that I’ve ever played with. Now that his route tree is coming along and you’re seeing him catch different routes out there, I think it’s night and day from last year from how much he can do now and we’re moving him around,” Pickett told Miller and Kirwan. “He’s a really, really smart player. He’s doing route conversions that he wasn’t seeing last year, now he’s doing it and he started seeing it towards the end of last year. So he’s a quick learner. It’s awesome to see and also to be on his team and have that as my teammate.”
Pickens ran the go route more than any other NFL player last season, and while he generally had success as he won a lot of contested catches, that’s not a sustainable path to consistent success. If that’s what Pickens’ ceiling was going to be, a jump-ball artist who struggles underneath, then his year-to-year numbers would look a lot similar to his rookie year with 52 receptions for 801 yards.
For Pickens to take that next step in his game, he has to become a better route runner and more comfortable running drags and slants and posts. From what Pickett’s said — and from what Pickens has talked about repeatedly this offseason — it sounds as if that’s the case. If he can become someone who has close to a full route tree, then Pickens can take over as Pittsburgh’s alpha wide receiver ahead of Diontae Johnson as soon as 2023.
He’s an athletic freak, as Pickett essentially said. Adding the little things to his game, even with occasional janky movement on routes, is going to make him better. The way he runs routes is tough to guard from corners because they don’t know where he’s gonna go, but having the familiarity and comfort level to consistently run a larger selection of routes and have success on those is going to take his game to the next level.
If Pickett feels comfortable with plays going to Pickens running routes he couldn’t last year and Pickens is comfortable running them, the Pickett-Pickens connection could be turbo-charged this year. It’s an exciting possibility for the Steelers offense, and it’s something that I’m going to be looking to see early and often in 2023.
