Pickens not getting open often enough
Analytics indicate receiver is not creating much seperation regularly
One of the lone bright spots from the Steelers’ loss to the Browns was George Pickens hauling in a Mitch Trubisky pass, viewed by many as an early contender for NFL grab of the year.
It was only Week 3, but that’s how impressive Pickens was on his 36-yard reception down the right sideline. Thing is, he wasn’t all that amazed by it.
“That’s probably, like, 7,” he said with a smile Thursday when asked where it ranks among his best catches. “At [Georgia] practice, for real, I done made some crazy ones. One of them is on YouTube, so you’ll probably see it. But a lot of them are undiscovered.”
Sure enough, if you type in “George Pickens practice catch,” one of the first results is a grainy video captured three years ago. Pickens leaps off both feet, highpoints the ball with one hand and pulls it around the defender while doing a 180 in mid-air.
Uh, can someone from Georgia discover the undiscovered Pickens highlights, please?
“I feel like it’s a whole pile of stuff that just made it extra, extra hyped,” Pickens said of the Thursday night catch going viral.
Yes, such as Odell Beckham Jr. — a favorite receiver of Pickens’ when the rookie was growing up — praising him for the snag. Beckham tweeted that it was “filthy.” Plus, it was a prime-time game, so the whole football world had all eyes on Steelers-Browns.
And the hype train for Pickens has been full steam ahead since training camp, when he wasted little time making catches not quite that acrobatic but special in their own right. Of course, it was one of just three receptions for 39 yards for Pickens in a loss, so more has to start clicking for him to be satisfied with his production.
Based on a new metric developed by ESPN’s analytics team that measures how well wide receivers are getting open — even on routes they aren’t targeted — Pickens isn’t generating much separation. Among all receivers with enough routes to qualify, Pickens has an “open score” of just 28, second- worst only to Washington rookie Jahan Dotson.
By comparison, Steelers wideout Diontae Johnson leads the league with an open score of 91. Then again, if Pickens can pull in balls like the one he did against the Browns, perhaps he’s always open — and perhaps Trubisky will throw it up to him more often.
“I don’t know what his brain process is. I can’t read his mind,” Pickens said. “For me, personally, I’d probably say that’s a good catch for me just to get my teammates to trust me more.”
About that penalty ...
Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada declined to dig a hole for himself discussing last week’s shovel pass gone awry.
The play itself worked great, with Jaylen Warren scampering 35 yards on a flip from Trubisky — until the yellow flag came out. Officials called right tackle Chukwuma Okorafor for an ineligible man downfield penalty, negating the big gain.
“I’m really thinking about my answer right now. ... We’re not going to change anything about that play,” Canada said Thursday. “The way that play was executed, we executed it exactly as we want to execute it. When we call that play, we hope to execute it exactly like that again.”
Essentially, Canada believes it was poorly officiated and should have stood. But you can’t challenge a judgment call, so the Steelers will have to hope the next referee sees it differently.
It won’t go on the final stat sheet for Warren, but his run after the catch continued to show Canada the undrafted running back is giving the Steelers even more than they expected from his breakout showing in training camp.
“I don’t think there’s any way you can say he hasn’t,” Canada said. “If he was going to give us more, obviously, he would’ve been drafted by someone, right? When you look at what he’s done, he does an unbelievable, great job in protection. That [shovel pass] was a well-blocked play. It was a timing play. Everything was really good about it, but after 20 yards downfield, he made it about 15 more yards doing some special things.”
Harvin fully healthy
Two days into this week of practice, Steelers punter Pressley Harvin III insisted the hip discomfort that landed him on the injury report Wednesday is mostly behind him. Maybe it was just the bus ride home from Cleveland that had him feeling sore, but he feels like he’s hitting the ball well and ready to roll for Sunday against the Jets.
“It was just a little small tweak that I felt,” Harvin said. “We’re good now, for sure.”
One nice byproduct of the extra precautions? The Steelers signed former punter Jordan Berry to the practice squad this week, reuniting Harvin with an old friend from the 2021 preseason when they were competing for the starting gig.
“He’s really, really a good, close friend of mine in this specialist world,” Harvin said. “He was a big help last year when we were in camp battling it out, and he’s still a big help. It puts a smile on my face to see him around.”
Harvin was listed as a full participant for the second straight practice, as were Minkah Fitzpatrick (concussion) and Kevin Dotson (ankle). But cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon did not practice at all again because of his hamstring injury. Veteran defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi was given a rest day.
For the Jets, starting linebacker Quincy Williams missed practice for the second day in a row and is not expected to play. Defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers (toe) was upgraded from a limited to full participant.