4 targets
4 receptions
1 TD
All on one drive. Then… crickets.
4 targets
4 receptions
1 TD
All on one drive. Then… crickets.
Be interesting to see if someone who knew what they were talking about checked out his route running.
Xavien Howard has been less than stellar this year but did the savvy vet CB just run Pickens routes for him? There’s a few that it looked like he did.
Haden did this at the end to young WRs all the time.
Add in two downs of Najee jumping for no reason.
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Howard was on him some. But, as soon as he wasn’t, the ball should have gone directly to Pickens. Heck, even if Howard was on him, I’d trust Pickens to come down with a 50/50 ball 90% of the time.
SUMMATION:
Target Pickens 10 times per game.
This kid needs to start seeing 8-10 targets a game. Pickens saw 3 balls his way today and hauled them all in. Positive outcomes seem to happen more often than not when they throw his way.
The fact that we threw 31 times today and couldn't find it in the gameplan to target Pickens more than 3 times is ridiculous.
What frustrates me more is seeing DJ thrown all these vertical routes that he seems to never pull down.
Blame Canada.
How many times is Crapnada going to toss up a 50/50 ball in the EZ or fade to the EZ to DJ? The complete stupidity of most of the play calls and designs is the most frustrating thing from this season. How long will it take Tomlin to realize this seasons results is almost 100% on Crapnada’s playcalling and play designs? Do we have holes on the team, yep. But we could literally have 4 more wins with a competent OC and playbook right now.
Fade routes and 50/50 balls are not an inherently bad idea or a bad playcall.
The problem is that our "#1 Receiver" isn't very good. On Trubisky's third INT, DJ wasn't even aware of the ball.
It's little things like that instance that make DJ just a really average receiver.
So Pickens is showing that he is a #1 WR, Johnson really has and always been a #2 or #3 WR, but was the best on the roster the past couple seasons. The wildcard is next year to see what Calvin Austin III turns out to be.
I think the Steelers can go 1-3 in their final games of the season and end up with the #7 overall pick. Might still be able to add a WR in the 3rd round.
Pickens is going to be much better with a real offensive coordinator.
If you keep throwing the ball to Pickens and Freiermuth, you will score points.
Pickens is money. I will never understand why they don't target him more. DJ must have somethin' on Tomlin.
Almost every WR makes a big jump in route running sometime after their rookie year. Guys like Pickens have never had to run routes with precision before.
Many regard Davante Adams as one of the best in the league. When he broke in with the Packers he couldn’t run routes worth snot. A few years later, he was uncoverable.
Pickens has all the tools to be on the same arc. Terrifying to think what he’s ceiling could be.
Fortunately, by the time we need to resign him, the contracts of Watts and Fitz will be on the backend.
Called his own name and has his first Game Winner.
All the dude does is make plays.