Despite his efforts to plead ignorance, Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens knows his message Sunday wasn’t “just eye black”. Even coming off a season-high in targets, receptions, and yards, he wrote “Open Fucking Always” across his face.
My favorite part, of course, is the fact that Mike Tomlin actually pretended not to know about it. But why did Pickens write that? Did he feel like he wasn’t getting the ball enough? Relative to other teams’ top receivers, he has a case, but they also don’t sit for 40 percent of games.
Even still, Steelers QB Justin Fields says it’s a battle not just forcing the ball to Pickens. He may cause headaches, but he is still by far the Steelers’ best receiver. Pickens doesn’t have a touchdown yet this year, but he is the player defensive coordinators scheme to stop. And they are doing plenty of scheming, successfully, so Fields has to be cautious about targeting him without discrimination.
“Yeah, I think you do”, Justin Fields said via the Steelers’ website about protecting against forcing passes to George Pickens. “I think you have to let it come to you. You really don’t want to force it because it kind of messes up your flow as a quarterback”.
So far this season, Fields has attempted 136 passes, of which Pickens has seen 36. That is roughly a 26.5-percent target share, which is very much in line with other top receivers. But the Steelers have thrown the fifth-fewest passes per game in the league, so the overall pie is smaller.
George Pickens still gets a nice, fat slice of the small pie, but he wants more. And I’m not sure he cares how he gets it: either a bigger slice or a bigger pie. All he knows is that he believes he is always open, and basically should always get the ball. But, again, he is the guy who can make a difference for you, so you want the ball in his hands.
“At the same time as a quarterback, you want to give one of your best playmakers the ball and have the ball in his hands because he’s great with it”, Fields said of Pickens. “He can make plays down the field. Really just finding a balance and not necessarily forcing the ball. But when he is open and when there’s a chance to get him the ball, I definitely feed him, for sure”.
He isn’t wrong when he says he feeds Pickens. I’ve already pointed out that he receives over a quarter of the Steelers’ total passing targets. So far, he is catching roughly two-thirds of them, 23 of 36. He has 310 receiving yards and no touchdowns, but he has also lost some big plays via penalty.
The only thing left after this week is to see how George Pickens responds on the field. He exploded for two touchdowns and nearly 200 yards the last time he faced this much criticism. And he is even more now than then clearly the Steelers’ top target. As long as they can protect Fields, I would expect a heavy dose of passes to Pickens on Sunday.
