Player: WR George Pickens
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: George Pickens caught one pass on six targets for zero yards on Saturday. Of his five incompletions, he had at least three of them in his hands on catchable balls. He had, quite simply, a dismal game, to the point that it’s given rise to conspiracy theories. And you know you played badly when it requires a conspiracy to make sense of it.
George Pickens put up one of the most confounding stat lines you’re likely to see in a while. In the Steelers’ regular-season finale, he caught one pass for zero yards—on six targets. Just to make things abundantly clear, the fault lies in the star. At least three of his incompletions featured him having the ball in his hands.
Sure, in one case, a defender made a good play to dislodge the ball, but it’s still on George Pickens to maintain possession. The early miss on a deep ball was also a killer, but his final drop was the most egregious. The only thing I can say is I thought he composed himself better than he might.
Unfortunately, he also missed his one shot at redemption. Russell Wilson tried to hit Pickens deep on the Steelers’ final drive but missed the mark. I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what happened on the play and what percentage of the blame lies where. I just know the ball wasn’t where Pickens was, a fitting end to his night.
Barring a stupefyingly impressive postseason run, George Pickens is in for an interesting offseason. Under normal circumstances, he would be in for a new contract extension after his third season. But he’s never put up top receiver numbers, and he is infrequently on his best behavior.
Have the Steelers seen enough from Pickens to feel comfortable giving him money hand over fist? And how many handfuls of money would it take for Pickens to sign? Are the Steelers thinking about trying to trade him—and would he want the team to trade him? Some fans found his poor game so suspiciously bad that they are convinced it was a part of his desire to encourage the Steelers to do just that and ship him out of town.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
