Steelers inside the ropes: George Pickens continues to dazzle

Another day at Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, another practice during which George Pickens shines.

A second-round pick who probably would have gone much higher had he not suffered a torn ACL last spring at Georgia, Pickens has turned heads throughout camp. Tuesday might have been his best practice yet.

Both in terms of volume and in magnitude, Pickens was making plays. At one point, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound receiver had three catches over a span of six reps. He had two touchdown catches during a late red-zone drill in addition to a catch-and-run when he used speed and agility to work across the field from the left side all the way to the far sideline.

Pickens worked the sideline for a toe-tap style catch, high-pointed the ball over veteran cornerback Levi Wallace — and he even ran for a nice gain on a jet sweep.

Pickens’ first touchdown in a seven-on-seven red-zone drill showed deft route-running when he found a soft spot between veteran first-team defenders Cameron Sutton, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds on a post route. Pickens leaped to catch the ball over the goal line and landed in the end zone.

That particular pass was from Mitch Trubisky, but all three quarterbacks who have taken team reps at camp have appeared to have gained trust in Pickens and tend to look his way when he’s on the field.

• On a much smaller scale, the quarterbacks similarly seem to have established trust in Gunner Olszewski, who signed as a free agent with a reputation as a top return man but without much of a pedigree at receiver. But Olszewski has shown quick feet and good route-running. He caught passes on consecutive passes Tuesday, once beating James Pierre and then getting the better of Tre Norwood. Though it’s in part because of injuries afflicting others, Olszewski has taken more first-team reps on offense than anticipated. As a bonus, Tuesday he took some snaps as a holder for kicks, an indication he is the designated emergency holder.

• The punters are the regular holders, and Pressley Harvin III and Cameron Nizialek took turns performing that duty during a field-goal drill in which Chris Boswell and rookie Nick Sciba appeared to be perfect (no “good” or “no good” signs were given). One thing neither kicker lacked was leg strength — kicks from as far as 53 yards all had the distance, and those shorter than 43 yards or so cleared the top of the uprights. A staffer in a construction-style scissor lift situated between the uprights had his apparatus smacked by balls when they were not flying over his head.

• The field-goal unit also practiced its “mayday” drill where special teams coach Danny Smith counts down a clock while the 11 players sprint onto the field and get a snap off to simulate an end of game/half try.

• Trubisky had perhaps his most consistent and best day of camp. The offense scored on three of the four snaps he directed in the seven shots 2-point conversion simulation, albeit two plays (one a score, one unsuccessful) were Benny Snell runs during a run-heavy practice. Trubisky also scored on a rollout that appeared to be a designed run, and he hit Chase Claypool with a pretty pass and catch in the back of the right side of the end zone. Onlookers declared it a “touchdown,” even if still photographs viewed later suggested Claypool was not able to get his toes in bounds.

• Kenny Pickett misfired to Olszewski during one seven shots throw but connected with a wide-open running back Jaylen Warren after a rollout for a score. Mason Rudolph’s lone snap was a scoring throw to Miles Boykin on a quick in route.

• Warren continued his strong camp, at one point going on a run for about 25 yards, dragging tacklers and requiring three defensive backs to bring him down.

• A day after a pair of bad snaps drew Mike Tomlin’s ire, two more bad snaps thwarted plays during a late-practice series. One was an exchange between J.C. Hassenauer and Pickett, another a botched shotgun snap from John Leglue.