Steelers rookie George Pickens wants to show off blocking abilities in season opener
George Pickens made his mark in his first NFL training camp with the type of body control and spatial awareness that led to a series of artistic catches which he carried over into the preseason.
As his NFL debut approaches for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team’s second-round draft pick would like remind those that consider him a candidate for the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year that he’s not a one-trick pony.
Pickens wants to be known as a physical blocker, too.
“I don’t say it enough as I should, but blocking can really throw a defensive back off his game, and then we can hit him with the pass,” Pickens said Thursday. “It’s a double-whammy type of thing. When a DB gets in the game, he’s thinking about working on his technique and covering his guy. He’s not really ready for the blocking, so I use it as a 1-2 combo.”
Don’t ask Pickens which part of the combination he prefers — the catch or the hit.
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“Really, both,” he said. “That’s the thing about the 1-2 combo, you can get really excited about pancaking a guy or you and make a one-handed catch and still be really excited.”
If Pickens wants to get in the spirit of the team’s rivalry with the Cincinnati Bengals, their season-opening opponent, all he has to do is watch tape of what a former Steelers rookie did in 2017. JuJu Smith-Schuster leveled Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict with a thunderous hit that resulted in a suspension.
Pickens admittedly knew little about the history between the two teams. His teammates have gotten him up to speed.
“They told me it’s a real rivalry,” he said. “I didn’t really know. I thought everything was on the same playing field and the team we played didn’t matter, but the Bengals are like a real rivalry with us being the Steelers. We just have to go out there and execute.”
Joe Rutter is a TribLive reporter who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since the 2016 season. A graduate of Greensburg Salem High School and Point Park, he is in his fifth decade covering sports for the Trib. He can be reached at jrutter@triblive.com.
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