Steelers WR George Pickens recorded catches of 44 and 37 yards against an injury-riddled Jets secondary. In total, Pickens led the team in targets (9), catches (5) and yards (111) while scoring his first TD of 2024.
Week 7 was an eventful one for Pittsburgh’s top deep threat.
First, Pickens hauled in a 44-yard sideline deep ball in the second quarter. Russell Wilson – making his first start in Pittsburgh – lofted an underthrown ball, but Pickens made a nice mid-air adjustment.
Later, Russ again threw a downfield ball behind his top receiver. This time, Pickens made an acrobatic catch to convert a third and seven.
As for the other highlights: Pickens had another deep target that arrived underthrown. (That one bounced off his hands.) On his TD, Wilson hit him on a simple fade route – again, underthrown – in the end zone.
Despite the iffy ball placement, consider that Wilson was pressured on 42% of his dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. He still posted a very solid 0.24 EPA per dropback and 9.1 YPA.
The volatility of Pickens’ downfield role will surely produce some down weeks going forward. But when he’s clicking with Wilson, there’s a WR1 ceiling here in the right matchups.
Next week turns up a Monday night matchup with the Giants. Treat him as a boom/bust WR3 for that one.
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