Jacksonville Jaguars’ safety Rayshawn Jenkins knows Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens is a talented player. But he’s confident the Jags’ corners are up for a challenge. In what could be a defining matchup, Jacksonville’s big corners against an above-the-rim player like Pickens, Jenkins told reporters today his defense can get the job done.
“I know that the receiver we have coming in this week, No. 14, he has a high yards per catch,” Jenkins said via Jacksonville station 1010 XL. “But respectfully, he hasn’t played our corners yet. So I’ll say that.”
Through six games, Pickens is averaging 18.5 yards per catch, more than three yards higher than his rookie season. Despite running a fuller route tree and not as many vertical routes, Pickens has found a way to make a larger impact on a per-catch basis. One reason for that is his YAC turnaround. After being one of the NFL’s worst YAC receivers in football as a rookie, he’s now one of the best. His 6.3 YAC per reception is fifth-best of any wide receiver in the league, just barely behind Miami’s Tyreek Hill.
On the season, Pickens’ 18.5 figure is second-best in the NFL, only trailing Houston’s Nico Collins’ 18.9. While Pickens can win on slants and seam routes, his calling card is still outjumping corners downfield. And the last two games, the back-shoulder fade has reemerged with QB Kenny Pickett peppering him with targets. Still, Jenkins believes they can minimize Pickens’ impact.
“We’re smart enough to know where the key guys are and how to take away those guys out of the gameplan,” Jenkins said.
Don’t call it trash talk but they’re quotes Pickens will take notice of. The Jaguars’ defense has done well in taking away the big play this season. Through seven games, they’ve allowed just 18 completions of 2o-plus yards this season, a top-ten figure. And there’s size to match. CB Tyson Campbell, who was Pickens’ Georgia teammate for two years, has great size for the position at 6-foot-1 with 32-inch arms. For the Jags, that’s the matchup they want. Their other starting corner is the much smaller Darious Williams, under 5-foor-10, a talented player but an on-paper mismatch for someone of Pickens’ size and style.
Pickens will look for his third-straight 100-yard game against the Jaguars Sunday. If he can do it, he’ll become the first Steelers’ wideout with such a streak over the course of a single season since WR JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2018. It’ll only be the eighth such instance in team history and something even the dominant Antonio Brown did only twice in his career. Pickens will also look to avoid those costly penalties that sent the Steelers’ offense backward twice against the Rams. With that on display last week, every DB for the rest of the year will try to draw another flag.
