We are witnessing the emergence this season of the NFL's next great wide receiver in the Steelers' George Pickens.
Pickens had been good with Justin Fields at quarterback over the Steelers' first six games. With Russell Wilson at quarterback the past three games, he has been even better.
Over his past three games, Pickens has 14 receptions for 276 yards and two touchdowns. Extrapolated over the course of a 17-game season, that would work out to 79 receptions for 1,564 yards and 11 touchdowns.
As it is, Pickens is on pace to catch 75 passes for 1,207 yards and four touchdowns. He leads the NFL with 11 receptions on passes of 20 or more yards downfield, generating a league-best 370 yards on those plays.
Pickens has always been a great contested-catch player, but he's unlocking even more parts of his game, something he began doing last season and has continued to build upon.
"He's just a very talented guy," said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. "He's got unique body control and hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, and very rarely do you see him uncomfortable spatially. And so we appreciate it, but I don't think anybody on our football team or within our organization that see him do things like that routinely, both in stadium and in practice settings, are surprised by it."
Things could pick up even more in the second half of the season.
Per ESPN's Mike Clay, the Steelers will face the easiest slate of defenses in terms of allowing yards and catches to opposing wide receivers the remainder of this season. That starts Sunday when the Steelers host the Ravens, who are 32nd in the NFL in pass defense.
Baltimore has given up 144 receptions for 1,992 yards and 16 touchdowns to opposing wide receivers this season. No other team has allowed more than 1,792 receiving yards to opposing wideouts.
"They're tops, if not, the top run defense in the league. I know a lot has been written and said about their pass defense, but to be quite honest with you, when I turn the tape on, I don't see negligence," said Tomlin. "I see a group that's definitively up on people, and a lot of people are getting out of their personalities and are simply somewhat one dimensional, and throwing the ball 40 and 50 times against them and I think that's probably the most significant reason why they're 32nd in the league versus the pass in terms of yards per game, is the circumstantial component of it."
That being said, the Ravens have allowed seven touchdown passes of 20 or more yards, which is tied for the most in the NFL this season.
• Much was made of Tomlin's decision to go back to Wilson as the Steelers' starting quarterback once he was healthy after Fields led the team to a 4-2 start to the season.
One thing that decision hasn't affected is how either quarterback approaches things.
Wilson and Fields have had a long-standing relationship that began when the latter was still in college and the former was at Seattle.
That made what could have been a tough situation a smooth transition. But there also was a maturity level displayed by Fields, who didn't pout over the decision or try to undermine Wilson.
"At the end of the day, I don't really understand when guys do have that relationship. I'm never going to hate on a guy for having success," Fields said. "I wouldn't want somebody to do that to me. I know how it feels. We all are playing for the same thing.
"We just want to win. Of course, in my position, it sucks. You'd like to go out there and play. But I'm just trying to look at this time in my life, I'm just trying to get the most out of it, if that makes sense. Just learn as much as I can, and when I do get on the field, prepare as much as I can for it and try to get better and work on my craft."
It helps having a player such as Wilson to make that work.
Wilson has been free in sharing information with Fields, even when he was sidelined, something Fields has appreciated.
"It happens a lot. Every game, every practice, if he throws a ball that I wouldn't have thrown, he gives me a reason why. I usually ask him questions like that," Fields said. "Yeah, just picking his brain, seeing why he does certain things. Most definitely."
• With an average game on Sunday against the Ravens, Wilson will move past Drew Bledsoe into 18th place on the NFL's all-time passing yardage list. Wilson currently has 44,390 career yards, while Bledsoe has 44,611.
With two touchdown passes against the Ravens, he'll move into a tie with Pro Football Hall of Fame member Fran Tarkenton into a tie for 12th place on the NFL's all-time touchdown passes list.
Sunday's game also will feature two of the NFL's best in terms of passer rating. In fact, it will mark the second time in the past four games two of the top five players in career passer rating will meet.
Three weeks ago, when Aaron Rodgers (102.8) and Wilson (100.1) met, it pitted the No. 1 and No. 4 players in all-time passer rating against each other. The league officially began using passer rating as a statistic in 1973.
Jackson is currently third in NFL history in passer rating at 101.0, while Wilson is tied with Joe Burrow for fourth.
That means the Steelers will have five games this season in which two of the top five all-time passer rating leaders could be on the same field, assuming everyone stays healthy.
All three AFC North quarterbacks are having ridiculous seasons in terms of passer rating. Jackson leads the NFL at 123.2, which would break the all-time record, while Burrow (108.1) is second and Wilson (105.9) third.
There's still plenty of football to be played, but three quarterbacks from the same division have never finished in the top three in passer rating in league history.
Remember when people claimed the Steelers clearly had the worst quarterback situation in the AFC North? That's clearly no longer the case.
And, in fact, they might have one of the better quarterback rooms in the entire NFL with Wilson and Fields, who posted a 93.9 passer rating in his six starts.
• There are some who feel Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. has been highly penalized this season. And while Porter does have seven accepted penalties against him – and three that have been declined or offset – they have been popcorn-type issues, to steal a term from Tomlin.
Porter has played in all nine games for the Steelers this season. Six of his accepted penalties and three of the ones that were declined or offset came in two of those games, in Week 2 at Denver and last week at Washington.
In his other seven games, he's been penalized once.
Porter's issues in Denver, when he had three accepted penalties and three that were declined or offset, came with Clete Blakeman's crew working the game. Blakeman's crew has called defensive pass interference or defensive holding 20 times in nine games this season, the most in the NFL for those two penalties.
Last week in Washington, Brad Allen's crew was working the game and Porter was penalized three times. That crew has called pass interference or defensive holding 12 times in nine games.
And overall, Porter isn't any more or any less penalized than some of the other top cornerbacks in the NFL.
Denver's Patrick Surtain, considered by many to be the top man corner in the NFL, has drawn nine penalties this season. If he's not considered the top coverage man in the league, New York's Sauce Gardner just might be. He's drawn eight penalties.
Kansas City's Trent McDuffie, another player considered among the top coverage men in the NFL, has drawn 10 penalties, the same number as Porter.
"I told 24 (Porter) not to get down on himself, because he was upset," said safety Damontae Kazee after Porter was penalized three times against Washington. "He plays the toughest position on the field."
The Steelers aren't concerned about Porter. In fact, they want him playing aggressively.
It's what makes him who he is - a shutdown cornerback.
"He's gotten better at that," defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of Porter and penalties. "Last week was just not a good week. He'll bounce back and play clean football because he's been doing a pretty good job of that. Early in the year, he had a few and then last week, it popped up again. But I think he'll be fine. He works at it, so I'm not overly concerned right now."
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
• The Steelers are the only team against which Jackson has thrown more interceptions than he has touchdown passes in his career.
Now, that can certainly change quickly. Jackson has 48 touchdown passes over the past two seasons, including 24 this season. But Jackson enters Sunday's game with four touchdown passes and seven interceptions in six career games against the Steelers, four of which have been starts.
His record in his four starts is 1-3, with the lone win coming in 2019 in overtime against Mason Rudolph/Devlin Hodges.
Nearly 15 percent of his 47 career interceptions have come against the Steelers in those four games.
The seven interceptions, however, are not the most he's thrown against any team. Jackson has eight interceptions against the Browns, but it has taken him 12 games to get there. He also has 16 touchdown passes against Cleveland.
Jackson, however, has thrown just nine interceptions over the past two seasons, including two in 2024.
