The Evolution of My Feelings for George Pickens

Big shakeup in Steelers land that is forcing me to step away from basketball for a second and shift my focus to football. Before I get into it though, what a comeback by the Pacers to take game 2 on the road against the Cavs and get up 2-0. 27 seconds to go and the Cavs were inbounding the ball, they inexplicably passed it right to Andrew Nembhard who then found Hali to go to work. Hali drove and got fouled, he hit the first but missed the second. Hali flew in and grabbed his own rebound, took the ball out behind the 3 point arc, faked a drive and stepped back to nail a 3 putting Indy up 1 with a second left. The Cavs had no more timeouts, and the game was over. Heartbreaking way for the Cavs to lose, missing Garland, Mobley and Hunter they were in control the entire game, until the last 2 minutes. I am so glad I posted my Pacers in 6 pick on Sunday morning, I have proof I was on this all along.

Anyway, George Pickens was traded today for a 3rd round pick and a 5th round pick to be swapped with the Steelers 6th round pick. Kind of an underwhelming return when you look at the raw talent going the other way, but I thought today would be a good day to go through all my Steelers recaps and show how my opinions on Pickens evolved throughout the season. That's the beauty of doing this blog over a longish period of time, I now have snapshots of how I was feeling about certain players in the moment throughout a season. Hopefully this will help me come to the conclusion that the trade makes sense:



August 27, 2024: George Pickens is About to Breakout

"Pickens is an awesome deep threat who is able to make contested catches look both easy and awesome at the same time. GP played most of last season with underwhelming Kenny Pickett at the QB position. This year should see an upgrade with aging veteran Russell Wilson and young up-and-comer Justin Fields taking over that position. George will need to improve his route running to get open on more plays as he will now be relied upon as the every down #1 receiver, but if he does this even to an average degree, he will be not only elite, but maybe the best receiver in the league."

And I remember this too, before last season started I was convinced that Pickens was about to be the best receiver in football. I reached and picked him with my second overall pick in fantasy thinking I was smarter than everyone. Can you believe I made the playoffs picking CMC first and Pickens second? August is peak optimism time for the NFL, guarantee I'll do this again.



September 9, 2024: Steelers Week 1 Reaction

"The ball almost feels like it is getting absorbed into his hands when he catches it, helping him to make some spectacular looking catches. He was very involved from the kickoff to the end of the game and should have had a touchdown early as well. If Pickens can keep this up and continue to be a true #1 receiver then the Steelers might not be in as rough of a situation at that position as we all thought"

Week 1 and I was over the moon! Pickens really did start the season strong. I remember too how many touchdowns he missed out on early because of bs penalties that weren't his fault. The talent is so apparent when things are going well. He's legitimately one of the best contested ball catchers in the world.



September 30, 2024: Steelers Week 4 Reaction

"Steelers have the ball inside the 15 yard line, Fields completes a pass short of the first down to Pickens who spins out from an initial tackle, runs inside the 5 and loses the football, clear fumble, recovered by the Colts and the drive is over. First momentum killer of the game."

The first loss of the Steelers and the first instance of a critical Pickens error setting the tone for a game. Fumbles happen though, I don't believe there's a single star player in football who hasn't fumbled at least once, surely Pickens' season is only up from here!



October 7, 2024: Steelers Week 5 Reaction

"[looking back at last week] Pickens notably put up 7 receptions for 113 yards, a pretty good game in the loss. But the team lost. When I opened Instagram on Monday I saw Pickens posted a photoshoot hyping himself up for his 113 yard day. Again, the Steelers lost the football game. I understand the stats were good but you didn't win the game, and a big reason for it was a fumble committed by Pickens near the goal line!"

"One play that could've turned the game around was a 3rd and 5 in the second half where Fields hit Pickens right on the hands for an easy first down, except it was dropped by Pickens. For all the talent Pickens has, it's the routine plays that he misses from time to time that really kill the offense' momentum. This is all building up to the final play of the game where after the whistle blew and the clock hit 0 Pickens yanks down a Cowboys defender by his facemask. The Mental toughness needs to improve, George: you were locked up all game and took the L no need to take it further."

I needed 2 snips from this segment that I titled: George Pickens Would Be Benched if They Could Replace Him. Lol. Weeks 1-3 the Steelers are winning and Pickens is contributing, life is good. By week 5 I am already starting to get annoyed with his antics, this post is serving its purpose for me in convincing me the trade makes sense, hopefully you're having as much fun as I am.



October 15, 2024: Steelers Week 6 Reaction

"I am now officially out on Pickens. Fields' day could've looked a lot better if Pickens held on to some passes that hit him right in the hands. To wear eye black that reads "Always Fucking Open" and then drop passes when you actually are open is embarrassing."

LOL wow that escalated quickly, week 1 I thought he was the savior of the wide receiver position and by week 6 I hated this guy. I also talked about him for 3 straight weeks growing more angry each game. That is embarrassing though, catch the ball George.



October 21, 2024: Steelers Week 7 Reaction

"Best part of yesterday was seeing Pickens pull down a TD in the red zone. I feel like all season I've been screaming for the Steelers to just throw it up high for George in the end zone and let him make a play. Wilson did just that tossing it up high in the corner and despite a defender being all over him, Pickens came down with the ball. 5 catches, 111 yards and a TD is the type of performance Steelers fans have been waiting for all season. If he plays like this every game, he can do all the immature nonsense he wants."

We're back on board! This is when Wilson took over the starting QB role for the Steelers and actually started playing to Pickens' strengths. It felt like a reset for the season. Pickens was extra pleased playing with a guy that knew how to use him. All was well again, why would we trade this guy!



December 16, 2024: Steelers Week 15 Reaction

"If the last 2 games have proven anything it's that George Pickens is an elite NFL wide receiver. Nobody else on the Steelers roster even comes close to matching Pickens' talent and the stats are telling the same story. In the 12 games with George Pickens, the Steelers have passed for 229.3 yards per game. Nothing insane, but also not a bad passing offense. Without Pickens in 2 games the Steelers have passed for 143 yards per game, which would be 30 fewer yards per game than the NFL's worst passing offense in the New England Patriots"

Distance makes the heart grow fonder. With George Pickens out for 2 straight weeks the offense that was already pretty rough completely fell apart. Shows the value of having NFL talent at important NFL positions. Luckily the Steelers got DK Metcalf this offseason so they aren't running Van Jefferson as a #1 option like they were here.



December 23, 2024: Steelers Week 16 Reaction

"George Pickens through 12 games had averaged 70.8 receiving yards per game. The next 2 leading receivers for the Steelers have combined for 68.4 receiving yards per game. That's right, Pickens is out receiving the next 2 receivers combined on the Steelers. This has been made glaringly evident in the last 3 games. Nobody on the Steelers gets open consistently without Pickens in there and there's definitely nobody who can make something out of nothing like Pickens does every single week."

Ok, more missing Pickens when he was injured. This is more an indictment on the rest of the Steelers WRs than it was praise for Pickens, they had nobody without him. With DK this year I thought we'd have 2 big threats again finally, but it looks like DK is the new GP where the Steelers offense is lost without him. Helps missing him too when he isn't allowed on the field to commit immature antics.



January 6, 2025 (Puneet's birthday!): Steelers Week 18 Reaction

"I have been up and down on Pickens all season. When he's on, he's one of the best receivers in the NFL, he's clearly the best receiver in Pittsburgh with nobody else coming even close. He has his fair share of attitude issues, but that comes with the territory of most elite receivers, you can stomach it when the production is there on the field. On Saturday night, the production was not there at all. Pickens finished with 1 reception for 0 yards despite being targeted 6 times. This wasn't a case of a DB blanketing him all game, Pickens just shrunk from the moment. I counted at least 3 catchable balls that Pickens just straight up dropped. On the sideline Pickens was getting into it with some fans, demonstrating his immaturity in a game they needed him to be locked in. By the end of the game, Wilson wasn't even looking at Pickens instead leaning on TE Pat Freiermuth to move the ball down the field. There isn't much more to say about Pickens but you can't not start here. Very disappointing showing from the team's young star."

I put the entire section in for this one. I remember this specifically too, he was coming off an injury so maybe he deserved more slack, but he both totally disappeared in a very important game, and got into it with fans on the sidelines. For as good as he was all season when he played, the biggest moments he completely folded. This was probably peak George Pickens frustration.



January 13, 2025: Steelers Wild Card Reaction

"In the wild card game, Pickens showed up to play. He had multiple big contested catches, was locked in for yards after the catch and pulled down a TD in the second half. As much of a headache that Pickens can be, these games are always so exciting and give you hope for the Steelers in the future. Next season I want to see an improved WR room. I think it can go one of two ways, either Pickens gets more open field with other threats to focus on or Pickens loses his mind having to share the workload. Either way, it promises to be really entertaining."

Aww now this series makes me sad! For the roller coaster that was the George Pickens season, it ended on a high note with him balling out in a game the Steelers got dominated. I rightfully came to the conclusion that he was in a tough spot being the only viable receiver on the team. I was truly excited to see how he did with another good receiver taking some of his looks, the drama was going to be at least entertaining. Oh well, now he's in Dallas with Ceedee Lamb offering the same drama potential that I was craving.





That's that. Honestly, I'll miss Pickens! When he was on he was awesome. When he was off he was catastrophic. He's a fun player for those who like drama and those who like talent. There's going to be a few games this year that you can give Pickens a lot of credit for a win, there will also be a few games where he should take a lot of the blame for a loss. He is never going to do the little things or be a good blocker on running plays. He's never going to be an easy going guy that's a good addition to your lockerroom. But he is going to be fun and I would imagine even more so now that I don't have to deal with the headache aspects every week. This was a good time! Long one so sorry if you didn't get to the end, but I had fun.