Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: WR George Pickens
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The second-year wide receiver responded to a disappointing performance a week ago in commanding fashion, catching six passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. It was his second 100-yard game of the season and featured something he had not done yet this year: contested catches.
Literally just a day or two ago, I published an article pointing out that while second-year WR George Pickens was finding ways to be productive, he was not doing so in the way he did best as a rookie: making contested catches.
And then he had three or four of them yesterday in the Steelers’ win over the Baltimore Ravens. Although his game-winning 41-yard touchdown reception was not one of them, nor was it an impressive sideline toe-tapper, he proves amply that he is still capable of winning those 50/50 balls.
According to Pro Football Focus, he had gone 0-for-8 in contested targets through the first four games of the season. Depending on how PFF judges each play, he probably went at least 3-for-4 in such opportunities yesterday.
But the point was always that he no longer needs to rely on those plays in order to produce. That was never going to be sustainable, but more than a third of his catches were virtually of the jump-ball variety, largely because he wasn’t otherwise getting open within the structure of the offense.
Now, in part due to his own development and in part due to the offense doing a better job of scheming for him, Pickens is finding more opportunities in space and being productive that way. He still managed 16 catches for 263 yards and a touchdown in the first four games without any success in the contested-catch realm.
Now he adds another six catches for 130 yards and a score after getting back to what he had previously done best. For those struggling at math, that works out to 22 receptions for 393 yards and two touchdowns in five games. In a 17-game season, that prorates out to about 75 catches for 1,336 yards and seven touchdowns. That’s not bad.
That, plus he threw a couple of nice blocks on top of that. This is how Pickens is supposed to look, especially if he intends to live up to the billing he offers himself as the best wide receiver in the world. He should have the impact on QB Kenny Pickett that WR A.J. Green had on QB Andy Dalton for the Cincinnati Bengals more than a decade ago, making him look like a viable starter throughout their pairing.
