The Pittsburgh Steelers made some big changes to their wide receiver room this offseason starting from the top down. They moved on from WR coach Frisman Jackson and hired Zach Azzanni in his place. They traded Diontae Johnson and released Allen Robinson II while signing Van Jefferson and Scotty Miller and drafting Roman Wilson. Calvin Austin II and George Pickens were the only two holdovers from the 2023 WR room.
Last year’s WR group didn’t exactly have the best reputation. Johnson and Pickens both came into the media’s crosshairs for various effort- and attitude-related incidents. It was time for a change, so they brought in Azzanni. He is known as a butt-kicker who coaches his players hard and puts up with very little nonsense. We saw some of that at training camp with a little tiff between Pickens and Azzanni at the end of one of the practices.
Zach Azzanni was made available to the media during the bye week and was asked how much of his job is learning which buttons to press with George Pickens.
“That’s a lot of my job, but that’s not only him. That’s all of them. That’s my job,” Azzanni said in recordings provided by the team. “I’m part receiver coach, part psychologist, all that stuff. And I embrace that, and I like that challenge. There’s only one ball, right? And they always feel like they could impact the game if you would just throw me the ball, right? And they all think that way, which is good, but my job is to temper those thoughts sometimes and sometimes rear ’em up and just know when to do that. And 26 years of doing that, so I think every week I still learn which buttons to push, but that is a key factor for sure.”
There has been a recurring theme with Pickens throughout his career. He is supremely talented and has all the potential in the world but sometimes he needs to get out of his own way. Whether that is slamming his helmet down when things don’t go his way or moping on the sidelines when he isn’t heavily involved in the game plan, there have been multiple examples of Pickens showing maturity issues.
He had a lower snap count against the Dallas Cowboys, which Mike Tomlin attributed to load management, and he received some criticism for not running full speed on certain routes in that game. Our Alex Kozora broke down the many angles related to his supposed lack of effort in that Steelers loss a few weeks ago.
Ever since Russell Wilson became starting quarterback, there haven’t been any issues with Pickens. Perhaps that is because He has 185 receiving yards, a touchdown, and two more touchdowns that were called back in the past two weeks.
“George is a competitor, and I’m a wide receiver coach. I’m not blind to the fact that those guys want the football,” Azzanni said. “And sometimes it’s directed weird and different, and that’s part of my job is to continue to keep him on the right path. And he’s done a good job of that these last couple weeks and has made some big plays and stayed focused.”
Azzanni downplayed the role of Wilson in lifting his WR group, but I think it’s one of the underrated things that isn’t being talked about enough. The moon ball gets all the attention, but the number of players Wilson involves in the passing game is the biggest boost he is providing to the offense right now.
If players know their hard work is going to result in more targets, they are more likely to stay engaged and give a full and consistent effort on every play. Wilson has five players with over 30 receiving yards per game since he became the starting quarterback. That has opened up the offense and kept guys like Pickens happy.
Azzanni also acknowledged that these players have lives outside of football, so the correct buttons to press can vary from day to day. Every coach needs to have a basic understanding of psychology to be successful, and that is especially the case when working with wide receivers.
As the young offense and receiver room grows and as Zach Azzanni learns what makes them tick more and more each day, the hope is that bigger and better things are on the horizon. The last couple weeks seem to be trending that way.
