T.J. Watt is driving the hype train for this emerging Steelers star

T.J. Watt is driving the George Pickens hype train big time for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Pittsburgh Steelers superstar edge rusher T.J. Watt knows what SEC fans have known for years: George Pickens can absolutely ball, dawg.

Pickens left Georgia as a national champion and the Dawgs’ most talented wide receiver since A.J. Green. Although their offense did not get him the ball a ton, as well as being hurt for most of his junior season, Pickens always had a knack for making explosive plays in big-time moments. His love for roughing up cover cornerbacks on running concepts made him a perfect fit for the Steelers.

Here is what Watt had to say about Pickens to NBC Sports’ Peter King while on Radio Row.

"“George Pickens is one of those guys that’s like, I don’t know if he understands how good he is. It’s like holy cow — some of the things you see in practice. But it’s also on top of that, it’s the little things. Like finishing plays, running — he can run for days.”"

For Steelers fans, Pittsburgh seems to have struck gold with their latest version of Hines Ward.

T.J. Watt is driving the George Pickens hype train big time for Pittsburgh Steelers

Look. It is imperative that Pickens becomes a star in Pittsburgh. He was drafted to be Kenny Pickett’s favorite target coming out of Georgia in the second round. While there is a chance this partnership has a higher upward trajectory, if Pickett-to-Pickens becomes the Steelers’ equivalent of Andy Dalton to A.J. Green, then we are looking at many playoff berths for Pittsburgh’s new core.

I mean, we are talking about a top-15 quarterback/wide receiver tandem all time with the dynamic Cincinnati Bengals duo of yesteryear. To say Pickett-to-Pickens will be like Ben Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown would not be fair to either second-year pro. However, you can sense the entire team fully believes those guys will be stars on the Steelers for years to come.

Ultimately, we are still a year away from being a year away for Pittsburgh to really make a charge in the AFC. Sure, the Steelers can make the playoffs in 2023. They tend to compete for playoff berths annually anyways. However, for Pittsburgh to have a seat at the big kid table with the Bengals, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, Pickett-to-Pickens needs to go up a level or three.

For now, we can’t wait to see how good Pickens can be in his second NFL season out of Georgia.