George Pickens Turns Deep Targets Into Production

2024 Fantasy Football Impact

Week 7 was an eventful one for Pittsburgh’s top deep threat.

First, Pickens hauled in a 44-yard sideline deep ball in the second quarter. Russell Wilson – making his first start in Pittsburgh – lofted an underthrown ball, but Pickens made a nice mid-air adjustment.

Later, Russ again threw a downfield ball behind his top receiver. This time, Pickens made an acrobatic catch to convert a third and seven.

As for the other highlights: Pickens had another deep target that arrived underthrown. (That one bounced off his hands.) On his TD, Wilson hit him on a simple fade route – again, underthrown – in the end zone.

Despite the iffy ball placement, consider that Wilson was pressured on 42% of his dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. He still posted a very solid 0.24 EPA per dropback and 9.1 YPA.

The volatility of Pickens’ downfield role will surely produce some down weeks going forward. But when he’s clicking with Wilson, there’s a WR1 ceiling here in the right matchups.

Next week turns up a Monday night matchup with the Giants. Treat him as a boom/bust WR3 for that one.