Mike's Beer Bar War Room: Pickens isn't just a human highlight anymore

George Pickens is evolving, and the NFL is taking notice.

The Steelers are doing that, too.

With Diontae Johnson out of the lineup, opposing defenses are really concentrating on helping their cornerbacks against Pickens. The Raiders in particular were rather pronounced in rolling coverage in Pickens’ direction on Sunday night. Yet, Pickens has put up 75-plus receiving yards in the past two games. That is the best two-game stretch of his young career. Pickens has 16 targets over the past two games, and has racked up a total of 202 receiving yards against Cleveland and Las Vegas, despite their best efforts to take him away. 

During his rookie year, Pickens burst onto the scene with spectacular plays that few wide receivers are capable of making, particularly in tight quarters and contested catch situations. He has outstanding size, body control, strength at the catch point, speed and acceleration. Pickens is obviously extremely gifted. But overall, he was rather raw. If you just scouted Pickens off the highlights, you would have missed that he had a lot of work to do before becoming a polished receiver. 

Everyone remembers this spectacular catch -- because frankly, very few wide receivers on the planet can even dream of making this play. And that is great. In fact, it is fantastic. However, at this point of his young career, Pickens wasn’t yet doing the little things that make wide receivers truly great, but instead shining on the spectacular. 

Last year, Pickens lined up on the outside for a very high percentage of his snaps. He did excellent work against man coverage, and really excelled when cornerbacks pressed him at the line of scrimmage. Pickens’ physicality really shows up against press coverage, and he has a large toolbox of moves to get off the line of scrimmage. Beating press man coverage is one of the most difficult things for young receivers in the NFL, and Pickens quickly showed that this was an area of strength to his game. That’s a great start. 

However, Pickens really had a tough time against zone coverage in 2022. He didn’t show a good feel for when to sit it down between zone defenders, and he ran an extremely limited route tree during his rookie season. 

An unusually high number of his routes were go routes, with some corner routes mixed in. That isn’t much diversity. When cornerbacks know that go route after go route is coming, it becomes very easy to defend. Cover men at this level are extremely adept at using the sideline as an extra defender, and running deep route after deep route can quickly tire out receivers. 

Pickens ran his share of curl routes, but very little in the way of in-breaking routes such as slants, crossers or digs. A very high percentage of his routes were contested. How often do you remember Pickens getting major separation? Everything was contested. While he excels in such situations, that is a tough way to live in the NFL. 

Pickens gained at least 20 yards on 32.7% of his receptions during his rookie season. That was the highest rate in the entire league. Of all wide receivers with at least 50 routes run, Pickens was 76th in targets per route run, but 55th in yards per route run. The Steelers also had the No. 1 receiver duo (Johnson and Pickens) at drawing defensive pass interference calls in 2022. So, there was some valuable hidden yardage to what Pickens brought to the table as a rookie.

This is late last year against the Raiders in brutal Pittsburgh weather. Down four points, the Steelers expanded what they were asking of Pickens by aligning him in the slot and attacking vertically down the middle of the field. The result? A Steelers win. 

Last year was explainable though. Remember, in Pickens’ final season at Georgia, he caught just five passes after returning (prematurely) from a serious knee injury for the Bulldogs final four games on their way to a National Championship. And before Pickens’ knee injury, he often got by at the college level with his extreme physical gifts. He didn’t need to be an overly refined route runner at Georgia to dominate his competition. 

But again, Pickens is evolving. He is hyper competitive and wants to be great. And, it is showing on the field in his second NFL season. Pickens is quickly turning into a prototypical big vertical X receiver.

Pickens is now running a much larger route tree and is far more difficult to defend. We are seeing a major boost in routes that break into the middle of the field. We are seeing what Pickens can bring to the table after the catch. His rookie route tree directly led to very little after-the-catch production. And now, Pickens has a much better feel for finding the soft spots in zone coverage with more experience under his belt. 

This is a busted coverage by the Browns in Week 2, but we also didn’t see this usage on in-breaking routes from Pickens with any regularity in 2022. After securing the grab with his big soft hands, Pickens becomes a powerful strider with excellent acceleration … and it’s a house call. 

It will be really interesting and exciting to see how Pickens and Johnson will complement one another when they eventually see the field together once again. And it will be interesting and revealing to see if opposing defenses start to treat Pickens as the Steelers' most dangerous weapon once Johnson returns. 

At this pace, that very well could be the case. Pickens is headed towards stardom, and not just because of the spectacular plays.