WR Pickens knows he is in for battles in the rowdy AFC North
George Pickens plays wide receiver with a violent demeanor, sometimes to a fault.
For as many highlight-reel catches as he made at Georgia, you can just as easily find video of the time a rudimentary receiver-corner back match up morphed into a full fledged fist fight between Pick en sand Georgia Tech’s Tre Swilling.
They call it “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate” when the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets meet each year, but Pickens was ejected for throwing punches in that game and was forced to miss the first half of the Southeastern Conference championship the next week.
Pickens was only a freshman then, in 2019, and he apologized to his teammates for losing his cool, but that aggressive disposition will be welcomed when the Steelers’ secondround pick gets to mix it up in one of football’ s fierce st divisions.
“Just, really, the AFC North, you know?” Pickens said Friday when asked why he’s a good fit in Pittsburgh. “You know the type of brand of football they always have, and that’s really how I portray myself.”
Pickens didn’t need to turn up the intensity on the first day of rookie minicamp, and he’ll need to strike the right balance of being confident yet not undisciplined on the field. But at 6 feet 3, he has the frame to back up his physical mentality. Pickens is a wiry 195 pounds and looked even more slim in shorts with no pads his first day in a Steelers practicejersey.
A native of Hoover, Ala., Pickens already has a connection to the AFC North. He’s known Ravens star cornerback Marlon Humphrey a long time, and both are products of famed football powerhouse Hoover High School.
Pickenseven has an older brother, Chris Humes, who was a couple of years ahead of Humphrey. Humes played against him then, and Pickens will play against him now — shades of last year when Steelers first-round pick Najee Harris was close with Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters, who was with Harris on draft night but missed all of 2021 with atorn ACL.
“Why I knew this was [going to] happen,” Humphrey tweeted after the Steelers took Pickens on the secondnight of the draft.
The days of knock-down, drag-out fights with the Bengals, Browns and Ravens are months away, but if you saw the photo of Pickens watching his name flash across the screen on draft night, he looked like he was ready to jump into the screen and startscrapping.
Pickens is in a white T-shirt, blue gym shorts and wearing a silver balaclava — basically, a ski mask that can cover both the head and mouth. That’s going to be the signature look for Pickens, apparently, and he even donned it during Friday’s walk through with the other rookies.
Pickens likely will be counted on to make an impact as a rookie for the quarterback who replaces Ben Roethlisberger.He may learn behind starting wideouts Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson, but the Steelers didn’t use a second-round pick on him so that he can sit on the sideline.
“It’s kind of like Georgia in some sense,” Pickens said of Matt Canada’s offense. “We always had a prostyle offense. Big Ben’s not here, so of course a lot of things are going to change from the old Steelers. But I feel like we’re progressing.”
Pickens looks forward to being a versatile pass catcher and on special teams if needed. The youngest of all 51 players at rookie camp — he just turned 21 March 4 — Pickens told reporters at Georgia’s pro day that he forgot his own birthday because he was so intent on training for the NFL. He deems himself “back to 100%” after missing most of last season with a torn knee ligament sustained in March 2021, and added there have been no lingering effects from a recovery process that impressed the Steelers brass.
OL addition
The Steelers announced an offensiveline swap, signing veteran tackle Trent Scott and waiving guard Malcolm Pridgeon. Scott (6-5, 320) has made19 starts over his first four NFL seasons.