2022 Chiefs Draft Prospect: George Pickens

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NAME: George Pickens

POSITION: Wide Receiver

SCHOOL: Georgia

HEIGHT: 6’3”

WEIGHT: 195 pounds

CAREER BACKGROUND

A native of Hoover, Alabama, George Pickens attended Hoover High School. During his junior campaign of high school football, he recorded 46 receptions, 735 receiving yards, five receiving touchdowns and two punt return touchdowns. As a result, Pickens earned Class 7A first team All-State offense honors and All-USA Alabama first team offense by the USA Today for 2017. His senior season was even more impactful. Pickens would finish with 69 receptions, 1,368 receiving yards, 16 receiving touchdowns and one kickoff return touchdown. The USA Today named him to the 2018 All-USA Alabama first team offense for that senior year.

After high school, Pickens took part in the 2019 Under Armour All-American Game. 247Sports rated him as a five-star recruit. They also ranked him as the 24th best prospect in the nation, the fourth best wide receiver prospect and the best prospect to come out of the state of Alabama.

Hot Start

Immediately after joining the Georgia Bulldogs program, Pickens added a major jolt into the offense. He played in all 14 games as a true freshman in 2019. More impressively, Pickens finished as the team leader in catches (49), receiving yards (727) and touchdown catches (eight). He had 12 receptions in the Sugar Bowl against Baylor, which tied a school bowl game record.

With the 2020 season shortened because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia played a short schedule. Pickens started in all eight games that he played in. He tallied 36 receptions, 513 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns (team high).

Affected By Injury

Entering 2021, Pickens was viewed as one of the top wide receiver prospects who could possibly declare for the 2022 NFL Draft. His stock took an early hit, however. Pickens suffered a torn ACL in spring practice in March. Thus, Pickens missed most of the 2021 season. He appeared in four games total, the regular season finale against Georgia Tech, the SEC Championship Game and both College Football Playoff games. In those four games, Pickens had five receptions, 107 receiving yards and 21.4 yards per reception.

SCOUTING REPORT

Instead of listing positives and negatives for traits, this year we will be listing the best trait of each prospect and work our way down to the biggest area of improvement/absent trait(s), from top to bottom.

Ball Skills

Pickens makes every catch look natural and relatively simple. No matter if it forces him to contort his body or extended his arms outside of his frame, he is able to corral the pass and secure the ball urgently. He has a great knack for making catches in traffic or in between defenders. Moreover, Pickens has impeccable timing when it comes to high pointing the football in contested catch situations. This pass catcher is also smooth when it comes to tracking and adjusting to the football in the deeper portion of the field.

Hands

Outside of those elite ball skills, Pickens does a good job of catching with his hands, rather than his body. He works to pluck the ball by extending his arms fully. Pickens also displayed the capability to alter his hand technique, depending on the play call or the area of the field for which he is working. He will work to widen his hands, if he is working in the shorter areas. Pickens could also wait to pop his hands on deeper routes as well. That allowed for defenders to not play his eyes and hands as often, for example.

Route Running

The ability to get in and out of breaks as suddenly as Pickens does is not common. He is not necessarily the most under control when throwing in double moves or fakes. However, that can be fixed with further coaching. On the other hand, Pickens is deceptive with his breaks and cuts. He mixes a subtle and explosive kind of step in his routes. This fools defensive backs, because they do not know how much cushion is adequate enough when attempting to guard him. Pickens is also attentive to finish his route stems and ending them with force.

Run After Catch Ability

He is not going to consistently outrace opponents in the open field. Nonetheless, Pickens is still very effective after the catch in a multitude of ways. He is not afraid to impose his will and throw his wait around against contact. Essentially, Pickens can become a running back and run people over. He is also rather elusive. Pickens can make defenders miss, due to his cuts in the open field, his upper body strength and his field vision. Finally, this wide receiver has a great feel for landmarks on the field and body positioning in regard to him and the opponent.

Speed

His short area burst is more existent than constant long speed. Meanwhile, Pickens is equally as dangerous when moving straight ahead, as he is laterally. His speed on tape is a more realistic expectation, compared to say what he ran at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine. The ability to control that speed is also rather impressive from Pickens. He does not take long to reach full speed when getting out of breaks or cuts. More importantly, Pickens does not have much wasted movements, which allows him to maintain solid speed in the open field.

Separation

Many people will look at how wide receivers create separation based on their lower half. For instance, a player’s cuts, double moves or fakes and footwork is highly monitored in terms of being able to get open. Pickens is not necessarily horrible in those areas. Yet, the Georgia product is also rather effective when using his upper half to create separation. Pickens uses his hands and arms to extend away from defensive backs. When needing to separate against contact, he is not afraid to get physical and lay into the chest of opponents.

Football IQ

The adjustments and focus as a pass catcher allow Pickens to create numerous explosive plays throughout the course of games. He is also aware of being able to change how he runs routes or when to pull out a certain double move, based on the opponent that he is facing. Pickens could stand to become more well-rounded as a blocker. In most moments, he is a bit late to extend his arms against defenders and can be a bit disinterested as a blocker in certain situations.

Versatility

There is not really any upside in playing him in the slot. Unless Pickens is allowed to work many routes across the field laterally, he is suited to work primarily as an outside receiver. The history of him being able to win vertically and deep also helps his case in working firmly on the outside. Pickens may also be better off in joining a team that spreads the ball around throughout the course of games.

Release Package

The footwork and power to work through contact could help him get on top of defensive backs routinely. However, Pickens has not shown much of a variation with any moves when working against opponents at the line of scrimmage. He is more decisive when it comes to him getting in the intermediate to deep part of the field. When Pickens gets more coaching and experience, he may be quicker to utilize different moves and alterations at the beginning of the play.

CHIEFS FIT

George Pickens could fit the Kansas City Chiefs because of a couple of reasons. For one, his mix of size, physicality and athleticism fits the play style that they have added to the wide receiver position this offseason, similar to JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. He also proved that he could win in all three areas of the field. Whereas with his vertical ability, that is something that could excite the Chiefs with their possible change in offensive philosophy. Pickens is also a pass catcher who could handle a heavy volume of targets early on, while transitioning into the NFL.

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs draft prospect profiles throughout this spring. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.