Steelers' George Pickens Recognized As "One Of The Best Receivers This League Has Seen In Years"

It's no secret that the Pittsburgh Steelers are entering the 2023 regular season with a great deal of excitement fueling them. After Omar Khan showed the league what an active Steelers offseason looks like, a perfect preseason has the Steelers sitting on the doorstep of 2023 with a handful of hype. It's been more popular for NFL pundits to pick the Steelers for divisional and league success, but not everyone was in agreement when the subject came up on the Speak! NFL Show on Friday.

Steelers Remain Popular Ahead Of 2023 Season

When the Steelers were brought up on the Speak! NFL Show it certainly got the panel talking. Of the four who were involved, Joy Taylor, LeSean McCoy, and James Jones all saw the Steelers having a shot at winning the 2023 AFC North division title.  Emmanuel Acho was the only one who saw things differently.

McCoy was the first to pick the Steelers to have a shot at the division in 2023. His first point was to bring up how quarterbacks from the University of Pittsburgh do nothing but win, but then he got into the specifics. This included remarking on the growth of Kenny Pickett and wide receiver group he has in 2023, but then he hammered it home by putting George Pickens right at the top of the NFL receiving elite. It's not a hidden talent any longer. Pickens is sensational, and McCoy sees 2023 as the springboard to the next step toward greatness for the young wideout.

"It's called faith. I have faith in Kenny Pickett. Everybody's talking about the difference from last year to this year...George Pickens will be one of the best receivers this league has seen in years."

Jones, a former NFL receiver, jumped in next to agree with McCoy. For Jones, though, it comes down to two other components within Pittsburgh's franchise.

Jones sees Tomlin and TJ Watt as the reason the Steelers will be competitive and have a shot at the AFC North in 2023. It's absolutely true that the Steelers are a completely different animal when Watt is healthy, something they sorely missed in the first half of 2022. Tomlin's ability to coach the team out of practically any situation and Watt's ability to take over games is why Jones sees the Steelers as the AFC North frontrunner.

"I agree with [McCoy] and the main thing I agree with him with is I'm a believer in Coach Tomlin, right? You add Coach Tomlin with TJ Watt. They don't lose. They do not lose football games with TJ Watt."

Rounding out the three of four who did see the Steelers as viable picks for the 2023 AFC North crown, Taylor was right there with Jones as to why. It comes down to the Tomlin factor. As much as everyone wants to shrug off the non-losing season stat, that means in each season, regardless of injury or attitude (see Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown), Tomlin never once let his ship sink or even allow the deck to touch the water. That's absolutely worth giving your vote of confidence to.

On top of Tomlin being Tomlin, Taylor sees the franchise quarterback as another excellent reason to put her faith in the 2023 Steelers. She saw the growth that he showed within his 2022 rookie year and their 7-2 finish to barely miss the playoffs as proof that with a complete offseason under his belt, the impact will be much greater for Pickett. In a crowded divisional quarterback room that includes proven elites such as Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, when healthy, Pickett is often overlooked, but Taylor didn't only see him as a factor but a chief one next to the coach himself.

"Of course I'm giving them a shot. In Mike we trust! He doesn't have losing seasons...we would like some more postseason success on top of that, but they're building things. You mentioned Pickett getting better. He got better as the season went on....so imagine the improvement you are going to see with an entire offseason."

It's hard to challenge those points, but not everyone was on the Steelers side when it came to the 2023 AFC North title.

Steelers Can't Compete For Division In 2023, Says Acho

Former NFL linebacker, Acho, didn't hold much back when he started talking on the Speak! NFL Show. He said the 2023 Steelers have no shot at the division title. It isn't a Tomlin thing for Acho, but just that he doesn't have the same kind of faith he has when he looks at the other three teams in the AFC North.

"I'm not giving the Steelers a shot at winning the AFC North."

While that may sound harsh and bleak on the face of it, Acho did have specifics as to why he puts no faith in the 2023 Steelers to be competitive in their division. He goes over the last two NFL seasons to show how he connects the division-winning quarterback to also being the most talented in the division (excluding Kirk Cousins in 2022). When he sees Pickett, it isn't enough for him to bypass what Burrow, Jackson and Watson bring to the table. Again, this is all what Acho sees coming in 2023, and he is the only one of the four who simply didn't give the Steelers a shot at all in 2023.

"It's not that I don't believe in Mike Tomlin, but what I cannot do is overlook Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, to exclusively look at Mike Tomlin...If you look at the last two years, only one time out of the sixteen division winners have a quarterback that's not the best quarterback in that division won the division...I can't overlook Burrow, Lamar, Deshaun, to exclusively look at Pickett."

It's obvious that Acho did his homework, but McCoy put it best when he said that's it all about faith and these young players exceeding our expectations. Pickett might be overlooked by Acho, but he isn't going to be overlooked by many others. When 2023 is all said and done, there is one thing I know won't be said, and that is that Pickett didn't bring his absolute best every single time out. That's going to happen for sure, so if we can have faith in that much, at least giving them a shot in 2023 can't be that much to ask, right?

What will be the reason the Steelers win the AFC North in 2023? 

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