Steelers WR George Pickens exposes the main difference between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson
George Pickens, for better and for worse is one of the buggest headaches in the NFL. Sometimes that headache occurs in-house, with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but most often it attacks opposing defenses, something the New York Jets found out on Sunday. So was it a coincidence that when the Steelers HC Mike Tomlin made a […]
George Pickens, for better and for worse is one of the buggest headaches in the NFL.
Sometimes that headache occurs in-house, with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but most often it attacks opposing defenses, something the New York Jets found out on Sunday.
So was it a coincidence that when the Steelers HC Mike Tomlin made a bold QB choice it led to Pickens' best game of the season?
Not at all according to the man himself.
Pickens goes for over 100 yards, scores for first time all season
"Oh yeah, like I said earlier in the week, a guy going to back-to-back Super Bowls, you know, he knows when guys are blitzing, his cadence is a little more dominant with guys jumping offsides," Pickens said when asked about what he learned after playing with Russ for the first time. "You know what I mean. But like I said, on third down and second down, they play a lot of man-to-man, and we took opportunities."
After a start so slow that fans were booing and calling for Justin Fields to return to the starting lineup, Arthur Smith, Russell Wilson, and George Pickens all got on the same page and started attacking the deep portions of the field, with Pickens making a couple big time catches on contested throws.
"Oh, you know me locating the ball downfield," said Pickens when asked what works so well together between he and Russ. "And you know Russ pre-snap, seeing what coverage it is before he says hike."
For Steelers fans and certainly those inside the organization, games like Sunday nights in Pittsburgh are just another reminder of how special the 23-year-old WR can be, even if he comes with more than a few question marks in terms of maturity.
Those concerns cropped up as recently as Friday when he outed that Russell Wilson was starting despite Mike Tomlin saying minutes before that he would keep the decision in-house until game time.
Even still, the potential is undeniable:
"Um, I would probably say my potential is very high," said Pickens when asked about his ceiling as a WR. "I work day in and day out. I don't really, you know, look at my potential. I just stay on the ground, stay working. And my potential kind of shows."
Pickens is hoping that the potential he continued to showcase on Sunday is just a taste of the back half of the season.
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He saw it coming from a mile away.
