TD showed so much of how George Pickens’ further limitless potential can be tapped for Steelers

It was only one play.

In a meaningless game. During the preseason. Against a mediocre team, one that wasn’t even playing all of its best defenders.

But George Pickens’ 33-yard touchdown reception from Kenny Pickett early during a victory Friday at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers provides quite a tantalizing peek at just how potentially dynamic the Pickett-to-Pickens connection can be for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense as each enters his second NFL season.

“That was a good all-around play,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada told reporters Sunday at Saint Vincent. “The run after the catch was good, finding his way to the end zone was good. All things we want to see and need to see. (Be it Pickett or Pickens), Year 1 to Year 2 we’ve got to see some of those things occur.”

#Steelers Pickett to Pickens for the touchdown ????

pic.twitter.com/GNXZwq1SMx

— NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) August 11, 2023

In the context of coming off Pickens’ rookie season, his touchdown was remarkable for myriad reasons:

• It was longer than any Steelers touchdown last season.

• It featured more yards after the catch than any of Pickens’ reception last season.

• It was relatively rare Pickens caught a pass in the middle of the field last season.

• It was relatively rare Pickens caught a pass at intermediate depth down the field (defined as 10-20 yards) last season.

“It was great to see the run after the catch that he had,” Pickett said after the game. “To catch and then break like that, so kind of with the way we drew it up — it was a good first job.”

Though he quickly ascended to WR2 status and wowed with highlight-reel catches both in practices and in games, Pickens has the look of a player who yet has untapped potential following a rookie season of 52 catches for 801 yards and four touchdowns.

Pickens ranked last in 2022 among 139 qualifying NFL pass-catchers in average yards after catch (2.0, per pro-football-reference.com). Pro Football Focus charting also shows just how often his routes were run at intermediate depths. Just 12 of his 52 receptions (23%) and 182 of his 801 receiving yards (23%) came on catches between 10 and 20 yards downfield.

A similar dearth of production (12 catches, 169 yards) came on throws down the middle of the field. Throws “outside the numbers” accounted for 80% of Pickens’ targets as a rookie, with roughly 40% each to the left and right sidelines. That left only 17 targets in the middle of the field all season.

But in a show of why the Steelers might be so eager to open that area of the field for Pickens, Pickett had a 141.5 passer rating when targeting Pickens in the middle of the field. By contrast, his rating when throwing to Pickens on the outside (in a much larger sample size) was 101.1.

Pickett had a perfect 158.3 rating when throwing down the middle and at intermediate depth to Pickens on Friday — albeit via one throw.

“I was working left and came back to George on it, and he did a great job,” Pickett said. “We were working that breaker route with man-to-man coverage, so it’s good to see him separate to the left. That was awesome to see.”

Pickett’s throw into a tight window was precise enough to spring Pickens’ run-after-catch — though a nifty move in which he deked right but planted his foot before swiftly cutting back to the left is what propelled him into the end zone.

Pickens said it was important to — at last — display some YAC (yards-after-catch) abilities.

“Just to show people that I can do that,” he told reporters after the game. “It’s based off the plays that are set up. Those were one of the plays where I get to show my ability for the run after the catch.”

Later on, Pickens elaborated on the play that went for a longer touchdown than any Steelers score in the past 29 regular-season games. And he dropped a line that might leave fans salivating:

“We’ve got more of that in store.”

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