George Pickens was born to be a football player. Simple as that. It’s not often that someone with his athletic skill set also has as good of hands as he does. In fact, former Steeler Ryan Clark even made the claim that he is more talented than Minnesota Vikings WR Justin Jefferson.
Whatever you think about the Pickens vs. Jefferson debate, there’s no denying Pickens’ talent. However, he did show some fundamental weaknesses in his rookie season, which are likely holding him back from being seen as the team’s consensus top wide receiver going into 2023.
Pickens addressed this concern Thursday on The Rich Eisen show.
“For a person like me that’s got so much talent, the fundamentals could just take me to another level.” He told Eisen. “I’ve just been trying to do the little things right; I’m so raw. Sometimes I get out of control on my routes.”
It’s these fundamental aspects that the Steelers want to see growth in this season. For example, Pickens ran one of the most limited route trees in the league last season. He ran a go route on over 30 percent of his routes while running a curl route on nearly another 20 percent. This led to him being fairly predictable, but despite this he still caught over 60 percent of the passes intended for him. That really is a testament to how good his hands are.
Pickens also touched on his thought process while route running later on the Eisen Show.
“Sometimes [I’m] not coming off the ball fast enough or not going the right depth,” he said. “As a receiver, you got a ticking time bomb in your head – if you got a 15-yard route, you want to come out early just because you might get the ball quicker.”
Pickens has already shown some of this growth. In the Steelers’ first preseason game, he ripped off a 33-yard touchdown off a slant route, making a nice juke move on a Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender as well. It also addressed not only his limited 2022 route tree of mostly go routes and curls, but also another one of his fundamental weaknesses in Year One: yards after the catch. Pickens was dead last in the league in yards after catch among receivers with 30-plus receptions, so it’s nice to see him pick some up, even if it is just preseason.
As he heads into Year Two, Pickens has an opportunity to put the league on notice. He’s already done so through his spectacular catches. Now he looks to do so through good, old-fashioned fundamentals.
