Steelers rookie already showing up veterans, getting fans hyped up

Much of the talk about Pittsburgh Steelers rookies will be about Kenny Pickett, but George Pickens is already making sure he won’t be ignored.

Young players at Pittsburgh Steelers training camp are going to dominate headlines this year and first-round quarterback Kenny Pickett is at the forefront of that. Battling it out with veterans Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph, everything the Pitt product does in camp will be under the microscope.

However, it’s another rookie that’s already stealing the show in Pittsburgh in the early stages of training camp.

On Friday in practice, wide receiver George Pickens, a second-round selection for the Steelers out of Georgia, turned some heads first when he went up and made a grab on a Trubisky pass while matched up with veteran cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon and then took off down the sidelines.

Steelers: George Pickens showing out early in training camp

Pickens wasn’t done there, however, as he and Trubisky connected for another beautiful pass-and-catch combination that had fans on social media buzzing.

Coming off of the board with the 52nd overall pick in April’s draft, Pickens was considered one of the steals of the 2022 NFL Draft by many. Had he been healthy (he tore his ACL in the 2021 offseason) for all of his last season in Athens, many believe that the Georgia product could’ve been an easy first-round pick and one of the best receivers in the draft class.

That could fit right into the Steelers’ M.O., however. Pittsburgh has long made a living offensively off of finding tremendous value in the draft at wide receiver, as evidenced by Pickens’ current running mates in the wide receiver corps, Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool, both of whom were mid-round picks who have largely outperformed that status.

Pickens is already looking the part of the next iteration of draft steals at the position for the Steelers. And while the quarterback question remains unsettled, there is no doubt that whoever is throwing passes in Week 1 will have a bevy of high-end options to target with the second-round rookie already inserting himself into that equation.