Kenny Pickett is headed into a crucial second year as quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

The last thing he needs to worry about is force-feeding targets to his wideouts in an effort to please them individually. 

But following some comments from his top two options, Pickett may have to handle a delicate balancing act:

George Pickens: “I’m Open even when I’m not Open”

Pickens has always been a confident WR, dating back to his time in middle school, where he admitted playing catch with professional-size footballs despite his premature hands helped him develop the grabs he makes on a regular basis. 



But that also may have helped him display the confidence he does to the media:

“The stuff that I do, bro, I feel like I’m the best in the whole world,” Pickens told Kevin Clark of The Ringer. “I’m big, I’m fast, low 4.4 [speed]. My catch radius is crazy. So every time I get out on the field, I do kind of play angry because I should get the ball on every play if you just look at the size and the frame. If I was a coach, I’d just throw to him every time."



And that was before he made his spectacular catch in camp, doubling down on his sentiment:

"Do you encourage quarterbacks to throw it despite what the coverage may look like?" Asked a reporter after a practice last week.



"Yeah, I encourage that a lot. That's like one of the biggest things last year that kind of frustrated me a lot," answered Pickens. I was new coming in so I can't you know… I mean, I can show you, but I couldn't really say much. So yeah… I'm open even when I'm not open."

Diontae Johnson: “I believe Kenny is Going to Get me the Ball”

Following what was a down year in 2022, Dionate Johnson is motivated to prove he's much better than his zero TD-receiving total from last year. But in order to do that, he needs the ball:

"You have scored a lot of touchdowns in your career here, not getting one last year, did that take a while to process? Or do you just kind of flush it as if it was a fluke," asked a reporter. 



"It was an odd year," answered Johnson. "Like very weird not being in the box [Score]. It was hard to really cope with it every week. I kept thinking, I wonder if I'm going to get in the endzone this week, I wonder if I'm going to get my touches, but now I know I can't do anything about it since It already happened…



"…But yea I had to move forward, just had to keep playing every week trying to do my best I can just to not think about it. But this year I'm ready. The past is the past. I believe that Kenny is going to give me the ball this year and that the coaches are going call the plays that we need to call to make that happen."

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Playing quarterback in the NFL is never going to be easy. And all wide receivers want the ball, otherwise, they wouldn't be successful in the NFL. Add that to the fact that teams need more than one reliable target and you might think these comments are commonplace in the NFL, but au contraire. 

I appreciate the confidence of Pickens and the motivation of Johnson, but the last thing a QB needs on his mind is that he has to force the ball to someone. We saw how that worked out in Cleveland with OBJ and Baker Mayfield. 



Luckily for Steelers fans though, this isn't Cleveland and I trust Mike Tomlin to sort out any issues should they arise. 

Steelers: George Pickens notes training camp battle with Joey Porter Jr.

He didn’t have to, but he did

Featured image via: © Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports