What’s Causing Lack of Production for Steelers WR George Pickens?
What's been causing the lack of production over the last two week for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens?
LAS VEGAS — George Pickens made a bunch of headlines during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 5 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
There was his profane eye-black message, his pouting on the sidelines, his lowest career percentage of offensive snaps played, and to cap it off, his cheap shot after the final whistle against Cowboys defensive back Jourdan Lewis.
None of the headlines were about Pickens’ play when he was on the field, which was fairly pedestrian. The Steelers’ No. 1 receiver was targeted seven times against the Cowboys and caught just three of them for 26 yards — one of which came on a hook-and-ladder play on the final snap of the game. Pickens was fined twice for over $20,000 for his actions against the Cowboys.
Against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 6, Pickens was a model citizen. There was eye black, but without a fine-inducing message. He wasn’t spotted blowing up on the Steelers sideline or getting into it with an opposing player.
Pickens was relatively quiet on Sunday, and from a behavioral standpoint, that’s probably a good thing.
He also got his snaps back. Pickens played on 45 snaps of offense against the Raiders, a bump from 59% to 67% of the team’s offensive saps. He was the team’s most-played wide receiver, and saw playing time in multi-tight end packages that had vanished the week before.
RELATED: Saunders: Let’s Be Real, George Pickens Was Benched and He Deserved It
But he was once again rendered largely ineffective as the team’s No. 1 receiver.
Pickens was targeted eight times against the Raiders, and caught three of them for 53 yards. One of those was a 31-yarder in garbage time while the Raiders defense was napping.
So over the last two games, the Steelers’ top receiver — in a room that is not exactly overflowing with talent — has caught six out of 15 targets for a total of 79 yards. And really only four of them have come while facing a concerted effort from the defense. Drops are subjective, but his drop rate is at 4.5% this season, according to Pro Football Reference. It was just 1.9% last year.
Pickens had relatively little to say about just about anything when he was interviewed by reporters in the locker in Las Vegas after the Steelers’ victory.
Head coach Mike Tomlin, asked about Pickens’ production on Tuesday, said it’s about more than him, pointing out that receivers need protection from the offensive line and a correct read and an on-target delivery from the quarterback in order to make an impact on the game.
“You know, I thought he did some good things in game,” Tomlin said. “I thought we left something out there. But leaving things out there is generally a collective issue, and not an individual one. And I think that that can describe receiver production all the time. That’s why I’m somewhat resistant to detailed discussions regarding George because, a lot of things have got to happen for receivers to be impactful in play, protection and so forth.”
So could a change at the quarterback position help lift Pickens’ production? Tomlin said that Russell Wilson is going to be given a chance to earn a starting role in practice this week. If it looks like he can unlock the team’s top — and really only — big-play wide receiver, that would probably be the No. 1 reason for Tomlin to make the switch from Justin Fields to Wilson.
Pickens was asked directly who he would prefer at quarterback on Tuesday. Appearing on an episode of The Facility on FS1, Pickens said he doesn’t have a preference about who plays at quarterback.
“I know the media and the world want to paint me out as a selfish guy but really I’m the most unselfish guy in the world,” Pickens said. “To me honestly it really don’t matter. They’re both good players. They’ve got two different playing styles, but they’re both good players and they both engineer victory. Me coming from Georgia, that’s like one of the biggest things I only care about, to be honest with you, is winning.”
He may only care about winning. But for a team without much talent at wide receiver, getting Pickens going is an absolutely critical part of the equation for the Steelers.
Read This Next
