A lot of off-season talk surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers encompassed their burgeoning superstar wide receiver George Pickens. Pickens made headlines throughout training camp for his incredible catches that defied physics, leading to him being projected as a breakout player for this season, and three weeks into the year it looks like he is fulfilling those predictions.
In an article for The Messenger, Michael Renner listed Pickens as a breakout player this season and said he is certainly not the problem in Pittsburgh’s offense.
“Even if the Steelers offense hasn’t gotten going just yet, Pickens has not been the problem,” wrote Renner. He’s on pace for 1,349 yards this season and averaging over 10 yards per target. He looks to have put all the question marks about his speed in the pre-draft process to bed. Pickens looks like a true ‘X’ wide receiver 1. The kind you can plop on the outside and run the vertical tree all day.”
Last season, Pickens showed a ton of potential but his route tree was very limited as he was normally relegated to running go routes or curls. This season, however, Pickens is running a more diverse route tree as his route running has improved and it is paying dividends for Pittsburgh.
In the Steelers’ Week Two match-up against the Cleveland Browns, Pickens ran a slant that he caught and scored resulting in a 71-yard touchdown. Most of those yards came on the run after the catch, an area where Pickens has excelled this season, already racking up 116 yards after catch (YAC) through three games. In 17 games last season, Pickens only had 104 YAC, showing how much more dynamic he is this year and how much of a threat he is when he gets the ball in the middle of the field.
Pickens needed to step up after WR Diontae Johnson went down with a hamstring injury in Week One and subsequently was placed on injured reserve. Since that injury, he has looked like a capable WR1 even in a weak offense. In his two games as Pittsburgh’s top option at wide receiver, Pickens has eight catches for 202 yards and one touchdown.
The loss of Johnson obviously hurts and even with how good Pickens is playing he cannot replicate Johnson’s ability to get open, but he is looking more dynamic than ever. When Johnson comes back a wide receiver duo of him and Pickens will be scary for defenses if the Steelers offense can get start to build some momentum.
Pickens was a predicted breakout player this offseason and early on this season he surely is breaking out. It is only three games so he needs to keep this up, but if he does it looks like Pittsburgh may have gotten a steal in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
