The Pittsburgh Steelers have been without top WR George Pickens for the past three games, and they’ve lost two of them. Against the Philadelphia Eagles, QB Russell Wilson only managed 128 passing yards. He did fare better against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, throwing for 217 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw a pick-six that was one of the most pivotal plays of the game.
When Pickens went down, Robert Mays of the Athletic Football Show called him “the most unlikely irreplaceable player” in the league at the moment. And Dan Orlovsky doubled down on that thought during Monday’s episode of Get Up on ESPN.
“George Pickens is as equally important to the Steelers as T.J. Watt,” said Orlovsky. “Wrap your brain around that. I mean, T.J. Watt, Defensive Play of the Year. Because Russell’s half the quarterback with him than he is without him. With George Pickens, they have a guy that they can just throw the ball to one-on-one. He’s gonna go make a play. It changes structurally the way defenses are gonna play against them… They just have no shot without George Pickens. With Pickens, they matter with Pickens. Without Pickens, they don’t.”
That first statement may sound like football heresy. T.J. Watt has been an incredible force for the Steelers and their record without him is abysmal. But George Pickens’ absence has been just as noticeable in the last two games.
The truth is, the Steelers have no one at wide receiver that’s even close to George Pickens. No one has the ability to consistently affect games like him. WR Calvin Austin III is having the best year of his career right now and is actually the second-most targeted receiver on the Steelers. And heck, his four touchdowns is one more than Pickens’ three.
But no one in their right mind would ever say Austin is a better wide receiver than George Pickens. Not even Austin would say that. They’re two entirely different players. Austin wins in space and down the field while Pickens can win in space or blanketed in coverage.
And head coach Mike Tomlin is fully aware of what the Steelers are missing with George Pickens on the sideline. As Matthew Marczi wrote in that article, Russell Wilson is only averaging 168 passing yards per game without Pickens on the field. That’s 103 yards less than the six games he played with Pickens.
The Steelers and Russell Wilson simply aren’t the same without George Pickens on the field. Dan Orlovsky thinks they have no shot to do much of anything without him. And the results on the field of 1-2 seem to bear that out at this point.
