Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool were held out of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason opener because of minor injuries, so they could only watch the Acrisure Stadium debut of the George Pickens Show from the home sideline.

Safe to say they gave the rookie receiver rave reviews.

“He’s a freak, that’s what he is,” Johnson said. “That’s a special talent. You can’t teach some of the things he does.”

With Johnson and Claypool unavailable, Pickens got the start in the Steelers’ 32-25 victory against the Seattle Seahawks. He was active from the get go, with Mitch Trubisky targeting him for a 9-yard completion on the first play from scrimmage.

Mason Rudolph and Pickens hooked up on a picture-perfect 26-yard fade into the right corner of the end zone that helped the Steelers build a 14-0 lead. Pickens also caught an 8-yard pass from Rudolph and then joined other starters on the bench after playing 21 snaps.

The three catches totaled 43 yards, with the toe-tapping touchdown grab from Rudolph providing the type of wow factor that has been on display since training camp workouts started July 27 at Saint Vincent.

“I called George’s touchdown,” Claypool said. “I knew it was going to happen.”

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Claypool anointed Pickens as one of the top receivers from the 2022 rookie class before the pads began popping in training camp. It created headlines then. No longer.

“I thought he would be one of the best rookie receivers, and people thought I was kidding,” Claypool said. “I really do think he is.”

In spring workouts, Johnson and Claypool saw traits in the second-round pick from Georgia that others weren’t exposed to until camp practices were opened to the public. Most evident has been the way Pickens leverages every inch of his 6-foot-3, 200-pound frame to make the type of leaping catches that routinely show up on “SportsCenter.”

“His body control is something serious,” two-time All-Pro free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said. “You saw it Saturday night in the back of the end zone. Everything looks easy and natural to him. It’s not a bunch of rigid, sharp movements. He had one today. I was all over his hip, I hit him, the ball hit his elbow and it still looked easy and natural to him.”

As a way to challenge Pickens, coach Mike Tomlin had Fitzpatrick guard him in one-on-one coverage drills Tuesday. On the first rep, Pickens virtually duplicated his catch from the Seahawks game, using a slight step on the veteran safety to his advantage. Pickens went into the air and came down with the ball in the left corner of the end zone, again making sure to keep both feet in bounds.

“There are guys who are good at going up and getting the ball that are his size,” Fitzpatrick said, “but sometimes turning and opening their hips is hard or turning and coming back to the ball downhill is hard. He gets in and out of his breaks smooth, and he adjusts to deep balls well.”

Pickens was still on the draft board when the Steelers selected him at No. 52 overall, and he was the 11th receiver chosen because of the ACL tear he suffered in spring practice last season. Pickens returned to play for Georgia late in the season and has showed no signs of being slowed in practices by his injury.

Still, the way Pickens has assimilated into the Steelers offense so quickly has impressed Johnson, who opened camp with a “hold-in” that relegated him to being a bystander for the first week of workouts.

“I’m watching him, and I’m amazed at how he catches the ball sometimes,” Johnson said. “He’s young and getting better on a daily basis.”

Where other high draft picks have joined the Steelers with considerable expectations and flopped once the games were held inside 60,000-seat stadiums — Limas Sweed and Sammie Coates are examples — Pickens showed for one game at least that he is the real thing. That he could join JuJu Smith-Schuster and Claypool as second-round talents who had promising rookie seasons.

Take the touchdown catch against Seattle.

“For me, it was like I’ve been doing it at camp, so it was a no-brainer for me,” Pickens said. “But for the fans, for the crowd, for the team, it was amazing.”

Tasked with making sure Pickens continues to build on his early success is first-year wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson.

“Even when he makes a spectacular catch or he makes a catch and I hear the crowd oohing and aahing, I’m going to coach him and find something that he needs to work on to get better at,” Jackson said.

Not that Jackson has seen Pickens’ exploits go to the young pass catcher’s head.

“He’s a pretty grounded dude,” he said. “He wants to be a great football player. He knows it requires him to do hard work and work his butt off and to ignore the outside noise.”

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