For those who haven’t been living under a rock for the last 24 hours, chances are that you have either heard about or watched the absurd catch WR George Pickens made yesterday over CB Joey Porter Jr. at training camp.
As you can see in the video clip below, Pickens made an insane one-handed catch over Porter and going parallel to the ground, snagging the ball out of the air with one hand for the explosive play.
That one play would rank No. 1 for most wide receivers all-time in terms of spectacular catches. For Pickens, it has become just another day at the office.
“Obviously, it was a freak catch, but that’s what’s expected of him,” Jaylen Warren said to the media Wednesday on video from Emily Giangreco’s Twitter page.
“He’s one of one,” Connor Heyward said. “We’ve seen him do that so many times and some of my high school teammates that played with him at Georgia told me that I was going to see some wild stuff of him on the football field.”
“That was just a George Pickens play,” Broderick Jones said. “Like, that was good defense. Like, you really can’t beat that. Joey [Porter Jr.] can’t really beat himself up about that. He was in-phase. It was good defense.”
Pickens mentioned recently in an interview with The Ringer that he feels like he is the best wide receiver in the whole world, stating that he has the attributes and skill set you desire when building your ideal NFL wideout. Seeing as Pickens standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 200 pounds with a 40-yard dash time of 4.47 second and a 34.5” vertical jump, the argument can be made that he has the height, length, and athleticism teams want in a prototypical outside receiver. He has made combative catches look routine during his time at Georgia and in his first season in the NFL, showing off his leaping ability and strong hands to bring down most grabs other pass catchers would deem uncatchable.
Pickens has made a point to work on rounding out the rest of his game this offseason, drawing praise from QB Kenny Pickett for working on his route running while also placing an emphasis on getting more YAC in 2023. Should he be able to improve these aspects of his game while making catches like the one yesterday on a weekly basis, the rest of the league better be ready for a breakout season from the talented second-year receiver.
