Steelers GM Colbert On George Pickens “Competitive Guy That Lets His Emotions Sometimes Get Carried Away”

[Steeler Nation]

The Pittsburgh Steelers selected George Pickens in the second round of the draft on Friday evening. He comes to the Steelers after having a productive college stint at Georgia, helping the Bulldogs win a National Title. But for all of the good that Pickens did during his time at Georgia he still stumbled a few times. As does every young man at his age, but usually not under the microscope that he was under.

Steelers rookie receiver George Pickens makes a catch verses Alabama (Curtis Compton/AJC)


Pickens missed most of the 2021 season while recovering from an ACL injury, and had he been able to play on the field this past season then maybe some of the rumblings about off the field issues wouldn’t be at the surface. Instead they’d be buried under a bunch of touchdown catch highlights.

George Pickens got an unsportsmanlike penalty for spraying water on a Tennessee player.

pic.twitter.com/1dPGDSaq6h

— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) October 10, 2020

While squirting water on an opposing player and getting your team an unsportsmanlike conduct isn’t a solid move, it isn’t the end of the world. But it can’t be something that happens again. And it certainly can’t happen on the Steelers sidelines.

Speaking on 93.7 The Fan, general manager Kevin Colbert acknowledged that Pickens has made some dumb decisions in the heat of the moment, but those deficiencies are something they seem confident they can fix with him.

Yeah. There’s nothing off field that would prohibit us, obviously, from taking him, because we did,” Colbert stated. “We met with a young man. We met some family members at his pro day. Our receiver coach, Fris Jackson, conducted the workout that he did at their pro day, and it was all positive. George is a young, competitive guy that lets his emotions sometimes get carried away. But you know that’s not a bad thing as long as you can control it. And we have no concerns and we’re excited about what he can bring. Coach Fris, he and coach Fris formed a relationship at that pro today where coach challenged him and he responded. So those types of things, you sort through it and you get different opinions, and that’s okay. We look for those opinions and try to decipher and make our own decisions. But we’re comfortable with George for sure”

Colbert attributed his willingness to get back onto the field after tearing his ACL as something that showed the Steelers organization a lot about him. The Steelers ran into the same situation in Pittsburgh last year with JuJu Smith-Schuster fighting his way back from injury to play in the Steelers loss to Kansas City in the playoffs. The return of Smith-Schuster was a shock to everyone. Shear talent, and his willingness to put his teammates before him seems to be the biggest things that stuck in Colberts mind about Pickens.

George from a talent standpoint prior to the 21 season, he was a special young player for Georgia and in the SEC, he tears his ACL last spring, and that was obviously devastating to him,” Colbert continued. “But what really impressed us about George, not the talent aside, his willingness to work back through that injury and get back out there for his team on what ended up being a Championship run. A lot of times players will pack it in and just say, hey, thanks, but I’m going to get ready for the draft. And George didn’t do that. And I think in doing that, he proved a lot to his teammates. He proved a lot to us that he’s going to put his team before himself, which the football character is something you always seek physically. He wasn’t 100% for them down the stretch, and I think they used him smartly in small packages. But as he progressed through the combine and the pro day circuit, he had a great workout, which confirmed to us that physically he’s the player he was prior to that injury. Now, can he supplant that he’s one year removed? He’ll be one year removed, I should say.

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Steelers George Pickens: “Explosive — That’s Like An Overall Aspect Of My Game”; Slot Or Outside It Doesn’t Matter To Him​

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Without the knee injury in 2020, Pickens likely would’ve been off the board before the Steelers picked at #20. The Steelers are hoping they captured lightning in a bottle and that Pickens will become the next great Steelers wide receiver. Time will tell.

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[Badcat]

Greeaaatttttt....AB 2.0?

 

[bermudasteel]

Not even close...

 

[slashsteel]

Not even close...

One small fight..