There is no denying the talent of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens. His highlights are as good as any receiver in the NFL now or maybe ever. Unfortunately, his opportunities for highlights this season have been few and far between.
At least some of the reason why Pickens has struggled is because the route tree he’s seeing in games does not maximize his athletic potential. A detail not missed on Pickens and he wasn’t shy talking about it.
“I don’t know, you guys be at practice, right,” Pickens said. “I would just say I hope to see things like that. When it’s routes like that, I mean, I can’t really produce that way, running five-yard routes, three-yard routes.”
There are really two ways to look at this. If you side with Pickens then absolutely, only running short routes limits his opportunities. But the other side of this puts the onus on Pickens. The best receivers in the NFL don’t just run go routes. They make catches and turn those into big plays regardless of the route. The routes Pickens wants to run are low-percentage plays and the Steelers offense needs to be more efficient.
