On April 29, 2022, the Pittsburgh Steelers sent out wide receiver Chase Claypool, their 2020 second-round pick, to announce the newest addition to the team.
Claypool received some jeers from the crowd, and after taking a quick dig at the Cleveland Browns, he let the world know that Pittsburgh would be adding a player to compete with him in the wide receiver room.
With the 52nd pick, the Steelers drafted George Pickens, wide receiver from the University of Georgia.
A three-year starter at Georgia, Pickens stepped into the Bulldogs’ offense and performed immediately, pacing the team in yards, touchdowns, and receptions.
He continued to impress despite a COVID-shortened 2020 season before suffering a devastating ACL tear during 2021 spring practices.
With the postseason looming, Pickens returned to the field as part of his rehabilitation, making a critical first-quarter catch in the CFP Final against SEC rival Alabama that put the Bulldogs on the path to a dominating 33-18 victory.
Pittsburgh paired Pickens with their first-round selection, University of Pittsburgh Panthers signal caller Kenny Pickett, to help bolster an offense reeling from the loss of long-time QB Ben Roethlisberger.
The 21-year-old pass catcher began the 2022 regular season as a starter, making a great first impression just like he had in Athens three years prior.
Spending the first three games with Mitchell Trubisky tossing him the football, Pickens struggled to find action until putting his name in rarified air in week 3.
With a little over a minute remaining in the first quarter, Trubisky rolled right to evade the pass rush and threw the ball toward the right sideline.
There, Pickens endured an aerial assault from Browns CB Martin Emerson to make an absurd one-handed reception to put his team in the red zone.
That play went viral and drew comparisons to Odell Beckham’s 2014 catch against the Cowboys, something that deflected from a hard-fought 29-17 loss.
Pickett joined his 2022 draft partner in the starting lineup the next week against the Jets where the Pickett-to-Pickens connection was launched.
George put up his first career 100-yard performance against a formidable Jets’ secondary, hauling in 6 catches on 8 targets for 102 yards in a 24-20 loss.
Another standout performance against Buffalo the next week provided little help in a resounding 38-3 defeat, but two weeks later, he snagged his first NFL touchdown catch in dazzling fashion against the Dolphins.
Though Philly’s defense made Pickens hold a goose egg, the Alabama native bounced back in a big way against New Orleans by taking a handoff from Pickett on the 1-yard-line and diving into the end zone for his first rushing touchdown.
The first-quarter score propelled Pittsburgh to a 20-10 triumph over the Saints prior to a week 11 AFC North matchup in Cincinnati.
Pittsburgh’s lanky rookie resembled another No. 14 from Georgia that blew by defenses in the Queen City, blowing by Eli Apple in the second quarter to notch an easy 24-yard touchdown on a corner route.
A bad day in Atlanta (that got worse because of sideline antics) got sandwiched between solid performances at Indy and against Baltimore, but the season looked to be in freefall as the Steelers sat a disappointing 5-8 through December.
Pickens’ enhanced play over the season’s final month elevated the Steel City in their final four matchups. Two big catches in Charlotte pushed Pittsburgh by the Panthers prior to a grudge match between their old rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders.
This defensive affair saw the Raiders hold the Steelers to just three points through three quarters, but the offense refused to give up even when the going got rough.
On the Steelers’ final drive, Pickett yanked the offense down to the 14-yard line with less than a minute remaining. The rookie QB found his rookie WR down the seam in the end zone for the game-ending score, keeping the Steelers’ faint playoff hopes alive.
While his impact was minimal on the field in Baltimore during week 17, Pickens made headlines by waving goodbye to the Ravens after teammate Minkah Fitzpatrick snatched the game-winning interception.
In the season finale against Cleveland, the Georgia product worked his way behind the Browns’ secondary on a 3rd & 15 play to score a 31-yard touchdown.
A postseason berth fell just out of reach, but the Steelers maintained the Tomlin standard of finishing above .500 with a 9-8 record, cementing the season with a four-game winning streak.
Pickens’ rookie year ended with impressive stats, boasting 52 receptions for 802 yards and 5 total touchdowns (4 receiving, 1 rushing) as well as becoming one of the best contested pass catchers in the NFL.
Prior to the 2023 season, Pickens found himself in the midst of controversy when head coach Mike Tomlin went on The Rich Eisen Show and stressed that while he appreciated his young receiver’s ability, he wanted George to embrace the fundamentals of the position.
“I just want him to get really comfortable with what can be drudgery; the high-volume things that come with being a professional, the things that you need to do on a routine basis. We all know that he is capable of the spectacular, and I love that about his game, but I want to see him make the routine plays all the time.”
Pittsburgh stumbled out of the gate against San Francisco despite Pickens’ best efforts, but when they hosted Cleveland the next week, the sophomore receiver made his presence felt.
On a second quarter drive, Kenny Pickett took the snap at the 29-yard line and sent a strike over the middle to a wide-open Pickens. The receiver weaved between the safeties and scooted into the end zone for his first score of the year.
Though his field general only found him 4 times on 10 targets, Pickens made the most of his opportunities, converting two of those catches for big first downs en route to a 26-22 victory.
The second-year Steelers standout made himself useful the following week in Vegas by moving the chains on all four of his catches, gaining 75 yards in Pittsburgh’s second straight win.
Houston’s suffocating defense gave the Steel City offense fits as Pickens dropped a score in the end zone in a torrential Texans beatdown before bouncing back in a big way against Baltimore in week 5.
In what was his best game as a pro, the former Bulldog accrued 146 total yards (130 receiving, 16 rushing), which included the game-sealing 41-yard house call after beating All-Pro Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphery on a streak.
He took that momentum through the bye week and into Los Angeles the next week against the Rams, torching their secondary to the tune of 5 catches on 8 targets for 107 yards to give Pittsburgh a 4-2 record.
The next three weeks exposed some of the cracks in the relationship between Tomlin and his burgeoning receiver.
In that trio of home games against the Jaguars, Titans, and Packers, Pickens pulled in just 6 of his 14 targets, going for just 66 yards and a touchdown in the third quarter against Jacksonville where he took a slant 22 yards to the house after splitting two defenders in the rain.
The Titans game caught the eyes of Steelers fans and media members as stories began to flow out of Pittsburgh players like a steady stream.
In the week after the Titans game where Pickens earned a single negative yard on his two catches, The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly wrote a piece criticizing the receiver’s on-field actions and social media posts.
Mike Tomlin dismissed the controversy almost immediately in a press conference and claimed he was encouraged by the fact that George is so passionate and wants to be an integral part of his football team and their success.
To quote Tomlin, Pickens’ troubles were nothing more than a pebble in his shoe.
Pickens responded in kind by warming up with a three-catch, 45-yard performance against Green Bay in a 23-19 triumph, bumping the Steelers up to a 6-3 record.
The 22-year-old wunderkind wasn’t immune to the pressure exerted by the Browns’ defense, grabbing four of his six targets for just 38 yards in a loss.
For the first time since Pearl Harbor stood undisturbed, the Steelers fired a coach; offensive coordinator Matt Canada got the axe from ownership. This could open up opportunities for Pickett and Pickens to improve with different playcalling.
Despite everything heading in the right direction in coaching, George furthered his tepid performance the following week in Cincinnati with three receptions for 58 yards that helped seal a pivotal 16-10 division win.
His second game in the revised offense under interim OC Scottie Montgomery saw his production improve, raking in four catches on five targets for 86 yards, his most since his back-to-back 100-yard performances in weeks 5 & 6.
The Arizona game represented the first of a pair of losses with the next coming at the hands of the New England Patriots on Thursday night where Pickens’ frustrations really started to boil and came to a head.
In a puzzling move, Montgomery gave his star wideout six targets, the most No. 14 had gotten in his short tenure. To Pickens credit, he converted five of those into catches and never lost yards on a reception.
However, he gained just 19 yards on those five catches, just 57 feet on the gridiron because his playcaller kept assigning him screens and drag routes. These failings culminated in a 23-18 loss at home with the postseason creeping into frame.
To make matters worse, Pittsburgh essentially lost Kenny Pickett for the rest of the season, meaning Pickens would be forced to receive passes from Trubisky or Mason Rudolph.
The first game of the revitalized Trubisky era bore little fruit as two passes intended for Pickens landed in the awaiting arms of the Colts’ secondary, setting up a bad 30-13 defeat at Indy.
With tempers mounting inside the team, Mike Tomlin finally let some emotion slip when talking to media the next week, saying, “I thought he [Pickens] was better, but obviously still has room for continued improvement.”
The Georgia standout persevered through calls from pundits to bench him for the rest of the season to log two of his best career performances.
First, he marched into Acrisure Stadium and put on a clinic against a hobbled Bengals squad, taking a first-quarter pass from Rudolph all the way to pay dirt to put Pittsburgh on the board for the first time in eight weeks.
In the third quarter, Rudolph and Pickens watched the Bengals open up the half with an 80-yard score from Browning to Tee Higgins, so Pickens matched him with a 66-yarder of his own to extend the lead to 31-8.
That 66-yard TD reception gave George Pickens his first 1,000-yard season, and it came in his first two-touchdown game, showing that he had what it took to be an elite player at his position.
He followed that new personal best with another game where he crossed the century mark against the Seahawks in week 17 and set another personal best, this time in catches over a single game.
George sat out much of week 18 as the game was effectively meaningless to both Pittsburgh and Baltimore, so Pickens’ regular-season stat line reads like this: 63 catches on 106 targets for 1,140 yards and 5 touchdowns with just one drop on the year. Pickens managed to lead the NFL in yards per reception with 18.1.
Pickens’ first playoff game the next week against Buffalo in the wild-card round saw the receiver touch the ball six times for 65 yards in a resounding loss to the Bills, meaning Mike Tomlin’s squad would have to wait another year to contend.
Shortly after their postseason drubbing, the figure of fines for the star Steeler began floating out into the media as CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones reported George racked up over $200,000 in fines over the 2023 season.
The total combined the amount handed down by the NFL ($33,441) and whatever the Steelers fined him for in private.
Entering his third season, Pittsburgh gave their star pass catcher a couple of new gunslingers to put the ball in No. 14’s hands, Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson and former Bears first-round pick Justin Fields.
In addition, the organization sought out the services of former Falcons’ head coach Arthur Smith to be their new offensive coordinator, a man renowned in the league for reviving the careers of journeyman and aging quarterbacks.
Those two acquisitions led to Kenny Pickett’s exit via a trade to Philadelphia, so coming into training camp in July, Pickens didn’t know which QB would be under center for week 1 as Wilson inexplicably pulled his hamstring pushing a sled with the offensive line.
Wilson’s injury kept him out of the lineup for the first six weeks, handing the interim job to Fields.
On that same day, George found himself in the crosshairs of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Ray Fittipaldo when he had a vocal altercation with new wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni that required other receivers to separate the two.
The training camp tension failed to create a lasting issue with the preseason going according to plan before the season opener in Atlanta.
Fields’ Steelers debut went just fine as he connected with Pickens on six of his seven targets, racking up 85 yards in an 18-10 victory.
Lining up against eventual 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II, Pickens lost a massive 50-yard gain to a holding penalty, and while his two-catch, 29-yard performance did little to impress in Denver, it was good enough to claim the win.
He rebounded in a week 3 matchup against the Chargers where he hauled in five receptions on seven targets for 57 yards where Pittsburgh extended their winning streak to three games.
Playing at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Colts’ defense allowed Pickens to have a breakout. Even though the third-year starter lost a fumble while in the red zone early in the game, he made several big plays, ending the Steelers’ first loss of the season with his first 100-yard showing of 2024.
A week 5 loss to the Cowboys saw George caught up in controversy yet again when he refused to participate in the final play of the game, a sequence of laterals that practically never pay off at the professional level.
His three catches for 26 yards also display minimal impact on the game as a whole, and combined with him throwing Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis to the ground by his facemask to end the event, it sent local media into a frenzy.
Lewis called Pickens “weak” in the tunnel after the game, and Tomlin explained his receiver’s low amount of reps as being part of the gameplan to maximize Pickens’ productivity, which seems counterintuitive.
Both Pickens and Lewis received fines from the league for the animus. In Fields’ last start as a fill-in for Wilson, he led Pittsburgh to victory in Vegas, finding Pickens just three times on eight targets for 53 yards.
The 36-year-old veteran gunslinger stepped into the starting role after he rehabbed from his training camp hamstring injury, just in time to play the Jets.
Just like his rookie season, Pickens ate up the New York secondary to the tune of five catches on nine targets for 111 yards and his first touchdown of 2024 when he leapt over Jets’ defensive back Brandin Echols.
His reign over New York football teams didn’t stop there as Pickens pulled in a first quarter touchdown that got erased by a face mask on the offense.
Due to the world’s stupidest technicality, officials ruled against Pickens’ second potential touchdown of the game where he tapped his left leg in the end zone twice with possession of the ball before falling out of play.
Continuing the run of NFC East foes, Pittsburgh traveled to Washington for a week 10 matchup coming out of the bye where Pickens contorted his body to make a gravity-defying snag in the first quarter, just his second score of 2024.
In the first meeting with Baltimore, the Ravens’ secondary struggled to keep up with No. 14 as the Georgia product barked like an angry bulldog all day, yanking the chains ahead to eke out a tough division win to start the run to the playoffs.
The Baltimore game was the first in a short round robin of divisional games that continued with the Browns and the Bengals.
At Cleveland, Pickens made a number of tight receptions against a stingy Browns’ secondary, but a Russell Wilson fumble doomed the Steelers in a 24-19 loss that put an end to Pittsburgh’s five-game winning streak.
George took this loss personally as he disparaged Cleveland after the game, boldly claiming that the snowy weather conditions enhanced the Browns’ chances of victory.
Cincinnati went better with Pickens tucking a screen pass away and scampering 13 yards to the end zone for his third score in six games.
Through 12 games, Pickens racked up 55 catches for 850 yards and three touchdowns, yet prior to their second game against the Browns in week 14, George suffered a hamstring injury that forced him out for the first time in his young NFL career.
He would go on to miss the next two games as well against the Eagles and Ravens, both double-digit losses where the remaining receivers couldn’t pick up the slack left behind by their star player.
A hobbled Pickens returned to the lineup for their Christmas Day game against Kansas City where Wilson connected with the rehabilitated reception artist, snatching three of seven targets for a modest 50 yards in their third straight loss.
At home against Cincinnati for the season finale, Pickens’ only contribution was a catch on a screen for no gain. He dropped three of his five other targets.
To make matters worse, cameras picked up on Pickens getting agitated with jeering Steelers fans on the sidelines.
Though these recent results weren’t exactly encouraging, the former second rounder put together a great day against the Ravens in the wild-card round.
Pickens grabbed all five of his targets and lost another to an offensive pass interference call, ending up with 87 yards and a third-quarter score where he split two defenders on the way to pay dirt.
Like other points in his Steelers’ tenure, Pickens’ individual day failed to translate to team success as his score came when Pittsburgh was down 28-7. The teams remained gridlocked for the rest of the way, ending the Steelers’ season.
Though we wouldn’t know it at the time, torching the Baltimore defense was the last time we would see Pickens in a Steelers uniform.
In his post-game remarks, Pickens was asked if he was optimistic for the future of the Steelers’ organization. He replied, “Nah.”
A team source spoke to Sports Illustrated writer Noah Strackbein about Pickens’ potential trade candidacy as part of a greater Pittsburgh receiver overhaul.
Over the offseason, the Steelers decided to make some moves.
First, they balked on both free agent quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in favor of bringing back Mason Rudolph to call plays under center.
Not only that, they made a huge trade for star wideout DK Metcalf from the Seattle Seahawks for just a 2025 second-round selection.
Pittsburgh let go of running back Najee Harris and started fielding offers for different members of their team, including Pickens according to some reports.
George didn’t handle this well.
Two days after the Metcalf trade was finalized, Instagram users noticed that Pickens commented on Jaycee Horn getting a new contract from Carolina:
“This what should happen when ya stay down with ya unit. Congrats my boy.”
Several outlets started to forecast trading partners for Pickens, including the Cardinals, Packers, Chargers, and interestingly, the Dallas Cowboys.
The week of the 2025 NFL Draft, Pickens selected the unfollow button on the Steelers’ Instagram account, sending fans and media members into a brief frenzy as the public waited with baited breath for a draft-day transaction.
The draft in Green Bay passed without movement on the Pickens front, but just 11 days after the last pick was made, Pittsburgh sent George Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.
Steelers’ general manager Omar Khan stated bluntly that the trade was beneficial for all parties involved as a fresh start would do Pittsburgh and Pickens well.
As time goes on and George Pickens blossoms into a superstar, completely flames out, or just keeps doing more of the same, this piece will receive updates on his career, but George isn’t the first Pittsburgh wide receiver to suddenly exit.
In fact, he is just the latest in a long line of premier Pittsburgh pass catchers to be unceremoniously shipped out of town for one reason or another, and through the rest of this new series, I’ll be trying to iron out the reason for this recurring issue.
Next time, I’ll be examining the swift and bitter end to Diontae Johnson’s tenure in the Steel City.
(Top Photo Credit: ESPN)
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