It’s no secret. WR George Pickens is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ best pass-game weapon. The offense will lean on him to maximize its plays. Every opposing defense will game plan around taking him away. While that could cause frustration for a receiver like Pickens, Mike Tomlin has no concern about his the third-year veteran’s response.
“Absolutely,” was Tomlin’s short but clear answer when asked if he’s confident Pickens will respond positively to adversity this season.
For Pickens, 2024 is his most critical year. An impressive season will put him in the conversation of receivers who netted massive paydays this offseason, $27 million-plus per year. With a rising salary cap and the acknowledgement that the next guy is always trying to get paid more than the last one, Pickens could earnestly command $30 million per year by next summer. But that will require a year where he produces like a No. 1 receiver and isn’t game planned away by defensive double-teams.
“He’s grown in the ways that you expect young guys to grow in terms of knowledge of the game and what it means to be a professional and how to conduct yourself,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel of Pickens.
Pickens’ maturity and handling of adversity have been questionable his first two years. Like many young receivers, he wears his heart on his sleeve and shows frustration when he’s not getting the football. Multiple times last season, Pickens found himself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The most notable instance came after a poor blocking effort on the goal line and excuses of avoiding injury versus the Indianapolis Colts. It created such a media firestorm that Mike Tomlin had to hold a rare late-week press conference to address the situation.
Throughout their two years together, Tomlin has stood by Pickens and vowed to help him mature and grow.
“George is a talented guy. But he’s growing and growing in a lot of ways in regards to football and life,” Tomlin said during that presser post-Colts game last December. “We don’t run away from that. We run to that organizationally. When we draft guys, we are committed to being a component of their growth and development in all areas. As I mentioned earlier this week, it is very much a work in progress.”
New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith must creatively scheme Pickens in ways that makes life harder on defenses intent on erasing him. That means changing his alignment, expanding his route tree, and using formations like stacks and bunches to get him clean releases off the line. Those were all on display this summer and to Pickens’ credit, he’s grown as a receiver. The other wideouts in the room must also step up and take advantage of their 1v1 opportunities.
For Tomlin, Pickens being the center of a defense’s attention isn’t new.
“I think George has gotten attention all of his life as it pertains to football,” Tomlin said.
While that’s undoubtedly true, a double-team at Hoover High School is different than the NFL. At those levels, Pickens’ pure talent could still win out. Sundays are a lot harder than Fridays. It’ll be up to Pickens to keep a cool head during inevitable difficult points of the season for the sake of his team and his production.
