Not just another ‘one-trick pony,’ George Pickens seeks growth to ascend in Year 2 for Steelers

It was more than a decade ago that Mike Tomlin dug deep into his motivational bag of verbal maxims to deliver a facetious barb at a young Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver who’d been raising eyebrows across the NFL with his propensity for big plays.

Days after two of second-year speedster Mike Wallace’s three receptions went for 40-plus-yard touchdowns in an early-season 2011 victory, Tomlin dubbed him “a one-trick pony.”

More than a decade later, the messaging is different — subtler, more encouraging — and the players involved also differ in their size and skillset. But the organizational support system around the current talented young receiver is similarly nudging George Pickens to grow his game.

Tomlin’s “one-trick pony” line in regards to Wallace was intended to inspire him to develop nuance in his game so that, for example, the aforementioned three-catch, 100-yard, two-touchdown game evolved into future outings of maybe eight or 10 catches for 200 yards — while still maintaining the “splash” of the two long touchdowns.

The situation is not 100% analogous with Pickens. But the general idea is the same.

Pickens wowed the league as a rookie with his big plays and contested or acrobatic catches. But for him to ascend to stardom, Pickens’ skillset needs to be refined for him to reach his seemingly limitless potential.

“Obviously, him being all the more (well-rounded), the more you can do,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said during minicamp earlier this month. “The more you can do, the harder you are to cover.”

Quarterback Kenny Pickett, the man who last season began to form what perhaps will become a decadelong connection with Pickens, talked similarly about the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder with the 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash and freakish catch radius.

“He’s a great receiver,” Pickett said, “and we talk all the time about how he’s evolving into a complete receiver and doing more things, running different routes and having a full route tree that corners have to deal with.

“You become a lot tougher to cover when you have all different ways that you can go and you’re not just a deep ball threat — which he’s not.”

Pickens, though, doesn’t want the rookie highlight reel to be his peak.

He believes his NFL ceiling involves more production.https://t.co/9b3n2esRCQ

— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) February 4, 2023

Some of the analytics provided by SharpFootballAnalysis.com and NFL Next Gen Stats suggest Pickens skewed heavily toward being a deep-ball threat last season. And that’s a valuable tool. But Pickens recognizes that he wants to be more of an every-down, every-route threat who accumulates more volume of receptions than he was in 2022.

Pickens’ 52 receptions tied for 72nd in the NFL, fourth among rookies. Though only one rookie ran more routes than Pickens did (578), his target rate of 14.5% was fourth from the bottom among qualifying rookies.

“I was adjusting, so definitely played last year like I had to learn every route combination,” Pickens said during organized team activities. “I couldn’t just be a one-route kind of guy, so I was just adjusting. This year, for me personally, is kind of the same thing. Same as Kenny — just adjusting and communicating.”

Now up at #BreakfastWithBenz--If George Pickens felt 'snubbed' in Pro Bowl consideration last year, then there are ways to fix that https://t.co/212seOYHbS @TribSports @TribLIVE

— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) May 31, 2023

Pickens ran 211 go routes last season, by far the most of any receiver in the NFL. (Tampa Bay Bucs veteran Mike Evans had the second-most at 177). But as Sharp Football points out, Pickens was thrown to just 13% of the time when he ran the go (loosely defined as running straight ahead toward the end zone).

Yet when Pickett (or Mitch Trubisky) did throw to Pickens on a go, the results were good. Sharp Football reports Pickens had the No. 1 success rate on go routes of any receiver who ran at least 105 of them in 2022.

Pickens had 10 receptions of at least 28 yards — more than the rest of the Steelers roster combined (nine). He also, according to Pro Football Focus, had more receptions on balls thrown 20 or more “air yards” down the field (16) than all of the other Steelers combined (12). His 64.3% catch rate when thrown to that far downfield was fifth-best in the NFL behind only the Browns’ Amari Cooper, the Eagles’ A.J. Brown, the Bengals’ Tee Higgins and the Commanders’ Terry McLaurin.

Oh, and then there’s the eye test. Just consider, for example, the spectacular one-handed lunging catch on a deep ball he made during a game at Cleveland in September.

WHAT EVEN IS THIS CATCH GEORGE PICKENS ????

????: @Steelers vs. @Browns #TNFonPrime | Watch NOW on @PrimeVideo pic.twitter.com/XWUcIhTWid

— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) September 23, 2022

“He is the best athlete, probably, that I’ve played with,” Pickett said. “Just the freak things that he does, the catches he makes that are so, like, nonchalant to him. But I kind of look around like, you know, ‘I’ve never seen that before in my life.’”

The challenge for the Steelers — via Canada, Pickett and others — is to fully unlock the possibilities of that vast tool box.

“It’s always fun when you’ve got a guy with his skillset, his natural ability,” Steelers wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson said. “The body control, the speed, the hands. And it’s my job to be able to correct and detail some of those little smaller things that the average fan may not see: the route running, being able to sink his hips … being able to line up and be in the right spots. The talent is there, I’ve just got to continue to mold the football part of it and the football IQ part of it, which is the fun part of it.

“He’s a lot more well-versed in the offense (than as a rookie), and he’s a lot more confident and knows what he’s doing. He’s just ready to take the next step, and I am ready to help him get there. So that’s all we have been talking about. I am excited to get him going. He’s made some strides this offseason, and once we get down to Latrobe he’ll continue to get better. But he’s got a bright future.”

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