Steelers' George Pickens Needs To Be Unleashed To Avoid Chase Claypool-Like Sophomore Slump

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a reputation for being one of the top franchises for drafting and developing young pass catchers. Pro Football Hall of Famers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth set the benchmark for Pittsburgh receivers in the 1970s, but the team has found many great receivers like Hines Ward and Antonio Brown in the decades since. In the last decade, the team has spent numerous premium selections on the position while trying to keep up the tradition. The team selected George Pickens in 2022, and if he is going to stick around, the team will need to make sure he doesn't fall off like some of his predecessors.

The Steelers have used a third-round pick or higher on a wide receiver in five of the last seven drafts, not drafting one at all in 2021 or 2023. JuJu Smith-Schuster had an up-and-down tenure with the Steelers largely due to injury after being a second-round pick in 2017. He made one Pro Bowl appearance in 2018 as he and Brown both topped 1,200 yards and 100 receptions. After one year and a Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs, Smith-Schuster has moved on to the New England Patriots signing a three-year deal in free agency. 

The team went back to the receiver well in the second round in 2018, a year after selecting Smith-Schuster, and added Oklahoma State's James Washington. His time in Pittsburgh was also mixed. He recorded a 700-plus receiving yard season in 2019 with three scores. The next season, his production in yards dipped to just 392, but he added five scores. When his rookie deal ended, he left for the Dallas Cowboys for a year and has now landed with the New Orleans Saints. 

In 2020, Pittsburgh traded its first-round pick to get star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and used their second-round selection on talented Notre Dame pass catcher, Chase Claypool. The Canadian had back-to-back 800-plus yard receiving seasons, but after tying a franchise record as a rookie with 11 total touchdowns, he had just two the following season. Sitting at 2-6 at the trade deadline, the Steelers fetched a second-round pick from the Chicago Bears for the talented, but frustrating receiver.   

Diontae Johnson is the only one of those taken in the third-round or higher in the last seven years who is still with the team. Johnson is working through his own issues with production after not getting into the endzone for a touchdown once in 2022. As the team's third highest-paid player by cap hit per Spotrac, he'll be expected to pick it up in 2023. 

The Key To Steelers' Pickens Not Becoming Claypool 

Pickens, like Claypool, also had over 800 yards in his rookie season. While Pickens didn't get the kind of touchdown production with only five, it's understandable given that Claypool had a future Hall of Fame quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger during his freshman year in the league and Pickens had a mix of Mitch Trubisky and then-rookie Kenny Pickett. Due to the statistics looking similar in their first years, it's got some wondering how Pickens can avoid any kind of a second-year slump like Claypool experienced. Jeff Hathorn of 93.7 the Fan recently gave his thoughts on the Locked On Steelers podcast with Cristopher Carter on what Pickens needs to do to succeed in 2023. 

"I'm hoping that he's working now and all offseason to develop consistency," he said. "You see the spurts and you saw it with Claypool, especially in that rookie season. It was like, 'Wait till this guy...' and he didn't take that next step. I'm not saying he [Claypool] didn't work hard, but for whatever reason, he didn't elevate. That's got to be George next year."

Hathorn highlighted that Pickens only caught 61.9% of his targets last year per Pro Football Reference. That's an area where he personally can work on being more open and securing more of the balls thrown his way Hathorn said. Some of his improvement though, Hathorn and host Carter agreed will need to come from Matt Canada putting him in a better place to succeed.

Carter highlighted some statistics from Reception Perception showing a stark contrast between the routes that Pickens ran and the success of each route on the tree. On his two most called-for routes, the curl (19.5%) and streaks (32.4%), his success rates were 67.9% and 58%. Pickens excelled on outs and posts at 85.7%, but was only called for them 5.1% of the time each. 

Hathorn offered one real easy solution to the aforementioned problem of Pickens' best routes not aligning with his skillset and that's to throw it to him deep down the field because that's what he seems to be best at. Let the group of Allen Robinson, Johnson and Pat Freiermuth Hathorn says and have the coaching staff realize that sending Pickens deep in year two is the best thing for him and them.

Do you think Pickens can avoid a Claypool-like second year? Do you see similarities between the two? Comment below!

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