After a promising rookie season with flashes showing incredible potential, the 2023 season was meant to be WR George Pickens’ big breakout. It started out that way with over 100 yards receiving in three of the Steelers’ first six games, but he has failed to reach that mark since Week Seven against the Los Angeles Rams. The offense has had plenty of struggles this season between poor quarterback play and the in-season change at offensive coordinator. It is tough to assign blame to Pickens for his lack of production with everything going on, but it is becoming a problem with numerous signs of frustration on the field.
With QB Kenny Pickett injured and unable to play for at least another week, the team has turned to veteran QB Mitch Trubisky. His first start didn’t exactly go as planned with a humiliating loss to the 2-10 New England Patriots in front of a national audience on Thursday Night Football. Pickens was targeted six times in that game but ended the day with just five receptions for 19 yards.
Trubisky was available for a press conference on Tuesday afternoon after practice and spoke about getting Pickens more involved.
“Get him the football, have open communication about what he’s seeing versus what I’m seeing,” Trubisky said via video posted on the Steelers’ website. “And just continue to work on that timing.”
To be fair to Trubisky, he had to rapidly prepare as the starter on a short week ahead of Thursday Night Football. The team didn’t get a ton of practice time. That being said, he spoke all last week about wanting to be aggressive against the Patriots. With the team trailing by as much as 18 points in the second quarter of the game, the time to be aggressive and get Pickens involved would have been then.
One of the main things that was working in those games that Pickens produced a bunch of yards was the Pickett-to-Pickens back-shoulder throw along the sideline. That isn’t something that Trubisky has shown a penchant for in his limited playing time this season.
Pickens is the team’s leading receiver with 767 receiving yards, but he is only on pace for 1,003 this season. He had 801 yards in the 2022 season and that was only starting 12 games. His production has barely taken a step up, if any. He should have some chances this week against the Indianapolis Colts as their defense is much less impressive than the New England Patriots’. It is a crucial game for the Steelers’ playoff chances, so they will need to pull out all the stops. Hopefully getting Pickens more involved is part of that.
