Steelers May Have Weapon to Ignite Dead Passing Game

PITTSBURGH — The Steelers have an alien in their building every day. His name is George Pickens, and each day at practice, he does something that blows everyone’s minds at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Pickens has done it a few times in games, too, but last Monday night proved to be the first time he took his game to the next level. No longer was he just a highlight-reel contested catch player.

Pickens took his game over the middle of the field, proved he had a significant extra gear in his step, and is starting to flash some nuanced route running that was not there last year. That led Pickens to his best receiving day of his career, with over 100-yard receiving yards.

With Diontae Johnson sidelined for at least a month, Pickens was due to see an increased role. He delivered a career-high 127-yard performance highlighted by an exhilarating 71-yard catch and run for a score in the second quarter. Perhaps more exciting than anything, Pickens was making plays all over the field and not just on go-balls down the sideline.

He’s already displaying more effectiveness after the catch, something that he needed to improve on. George Pickens looks like a potential star, and the Steelers might need him to morph into one sooner rather than later to jumpstart this struggling offense. But with ten targets against the Raiders, Kenny Pickett and Matt Canada want to get him involved even more.

“He’s an unbelievable player,” Pickett said. “We’ve got to try and find ways to get him the football. Throughout the Cleveland game you watch it. They try to double him a lot and continue to be unique. Move him around, just get him the football and then let him do his thing.”

The Steelers are not hiding their cards with this one. Well, there isn’t much of a need to do that anyway. Pickens is their best receiver, with Johnson gone. Even with players double-teaming him, Pickens found ways to separate and create space for Pickett to trust him. However, Many throws that went down as targets were throwaways in the vicinity of Pickens. The team wants to see more designed throws to Pickens, who they think might ignite the passing game.

“He had ten targets, and we were obviously sitting there saying we didn’t have it, so that’s not the only answer to it. Obviously, George is a dynamic player and a guy we have great confidence in,” Canad said. “Again, some teams play man. Some teams play zone. Some teams know where the ball goes. G.P. is a guy we want to touch the ball. We want him to have a chance to make explosive plays, and Kenny has great faith in him. I can’t ever predict how that’s going to play.”

Pickens will get a chance to do that and continue his ascending status with Marcus Peters as the matchup on Sunday night. The book on Peters has been out for a while now. He’s a playmaker, for better or worse, with plus ball skills, but he’s also a risk-taker, which sometimes gets him in trouble. The former first-round pick has also been known as a big trash-talker, making this matchup between these talented players even more intriguing.