Is George Pickens In Line for a Year 2 Breakout? 1 Big Thing from Week 16

Blair Andrews
December 28, 2022

In 1 Big Thing, Blair Andrews uses the RotoViz tools to take a deep dive into an interesting, unique, and potentially actionable development from the last week of fantasy football.

George Pickens led all Steelers in PPR points in Week 16. That sounds pretty good, but he had only 16.7 points. He’s only surpassed that number twice this season.

Despite making a few amazing catches, Pickens has not exactly been a fantasy force. Part of the problem, as you can probably guess, is the Steelers’ offense.

The Steelers’ Offensive Shortcomings

Kenny Pickett is the QB36 in points per game, and he’s produced over 54 points below expectation in the passing game. After 16 games, Pickett’s closest comps in the RotoViz Screener don’t inspire much confidence, but both Joe Burrow and Ryan Tannehill show up if you scroll far enough.

It remains to be seen whether Pickett is more Zach Wilson or more Burrow. Pickett’s efficiency profile and TD-INT ratio more closely mirror the former, but his completion percentage is on a level closer to Burrow than to Wilson, which offers some hope. Of course it helps that in his second season, Burrow got to throw to an ascending Tee Higgins and one of the best rookie WRs ever in Ja’Marr Chase.

The Surprising Deficiency in the Steelers’ WR Corps

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Blair Andrews

Managing Editor, Author of The Wrong Read, Occasional Fantasy Football League Winner. All opinions are someone else's.

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