A lot has changed when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense since the end of the 2023 season. They hired an external offensive coordinator, parted ways with both Allen Robinson II and Diontae Johnson, and replaced their top three quarterbacks with three new signal callers. Most of the change seems positive as we sit here right now, but there are big questions to be addressed at wide receiver. George Pickens is currently the veteran in the room and really the only one with significant experience within the organization.
Robinson spent just one year with the team but is a 10-year NFL veteran and brought that experience and leadership to the room. Johnson was one of the longest-tenured players on the offensive side of the ball but is no longer with the team. With some of the effort-related issues coming from Pickens last year, where does that leave the state of the WR room in Pittsburgh?
“Certainly we’re really comfortable with the trajectory of George Pickens in terms of what he’s gonna be able to provide us as a player,” head coach Mike Tomlin said Monday during the pre-draft press conference posted on the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “Not only in terms of play making, but what his experience within the room and within this organization provides us.”
The aforementioned moves in the WR room back up Tomlin’s words to a certain extent. If they weren’t comfortable with Pickens’ trajectory, would they maybe have kept a guy like Robinson around or been less hasty to move on from Johnson?
On the other side of things, receivers have been coming out of the draft in recent years more prepared than ever to be instant contributors. It’s an evolution of the game of football starting with youth football, all the way up through the ranks of college.
“I think it’s the nature and the development of the game,” Tomlin said. “I also think it’s [the] development of 7-on-7 football at the lower levels in high school where it’s becoming more of a year-round endeavor. And so people that are involved in 7-on-7 have an opportunity to have a higher level of skill relative to their positions than people that don’t.”
Every year now, there are receivers who hit the ground running with over 1,000 yards receiving as a rookie. Dating back to 2000, there have been 17 instances of rookie receivers eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark. Seven of those have come in the last five seasons alone. Puka Nacua did it in 2023, Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave did it in 2022, Ja’Marr Chase and Jaylen Waddle in 2021. It is becoming more commonplace to expect big things from young receivers, and that is good news for the Steelers, who have no clear option at WR2.
“I’m comfortable with the trajectory of that room,” Tomlin said. “The guys come in ready-made. There’s a lot of talent available to us, and a lot of those guys will participate. If you look at the kid from the Rams, was really significant this year, and I think maybe it was a fifth-round pick. That’s what’s going on in that position.”
This draft figures to be similar with the level of talent that can be acquired well into the middle rounds of the draft. There are 17 receivers among the top-100 prospects of Dane Brugler’s pre-draft guide alone, for example. Over the last 10 drafts, 13.8 receivers on average were selected over the first three rounds. This draft should well exceed that average and has the potential to break records for the position in draft history.
So while Pickens will be the veteran and likely the unquestioned WR1, there will be plenty of opportunities to upgrade the room all throughout the draft. Don’t be surprised if the Steelers double-dip at the position, either.
