Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada has already taken to calling his new wide receiver from Georgia “Big George.” The question is whether we’ll also be calling George Pickens a “Big Slot.”
That kind of receiver is all the rage in today’s NFL. The days of a small, shifty slot receiver aren’t gone, but the premier players being deployed at the position are of a different variety. Cooper Kupp, Chris Godwin, even JuJu Smith-Schuster here in Pittsburgh until the 2021 injury that ended his regular season — all are 6-foot-1 or taller, listed at 208 pounds or heavier. Those aren’t your typical body types when you think of an NFL slot, but it’s time to start thinking that way.
“The reality is that you need all types, particularly in today’s game, for matchup purposes,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Thursday, the final day of minicamp. “So, we’re casting a big net. A lot of guys are acclimating themselves to that space and showing that they’re capable.”
Quite literally, “that space” is one that includes working in small areas and finding open windows for the quarterback. The Steelers have short, quick players to pick from — fourth-round rookie Calvin Austin, free agent signing Gunner Olszewski, and even rookie camp tryout surprise Tyler Snead — but the way their receiver room is constructed, the slot position could be moving in another direction.
Diontae Johnson has the classic burst and route-running creativity for the job, but the Steelers have consistently used him as an outside receiver to this point in his career. Sure, pre-snap motion can shuffle players around the formation — and it should, to keep defenses guessing — but Johnson figures to again spend the majority of his time where he’s been most comfortable now that he’s in a contract year.
If Johnson is in a tier of his own as this team’s No. 1 receiver coming off a Pro Bowl season, Chase Claypool is the clear No. 2. Claypool was used often in the slot in college, but so far, the Steelers have liked him on the outside, too. They didn’t even experiment much with him inside after Smith-Schuster went down in Week 5, but Claypool believes he can be a more diverse target in his third season.
“I just went upstairs, talked to coach Canada and asked him what he wanted me to do [the rest of the offseason],” Claypool said Thursday before he set sail for independent workouts the next six weeks. “I’ve got list of things in my phone I’m going to be working on, different from things I was working on previously, just to kind of adjust to what they’ll have me do in the offense. I can’t say specifics, but we’ve got a list.”
Canada won’t have any shortage of options to create mismatches in 2022. If it’s not Claypool lining up in the slot, Pickens is another bigger-bodied candidate to replace Smith-Schuster. Tomlin called him “raw” but also someone with “a lot of talent.”
At 6-3, 195 pounds, Pickens is learning on the fly, though he has noted multiple times that he often got reps at the slot in practice while at Georgia. The national champs used his speed and leaping ability on the perimeter when it came time to play the games, but Pickens seems to be impressing as an all-around pass catcher already.
“He’s a frickin’ big dude,” Canada said. “I just think his ability to transition his body for a guy who’s so big — and, obviously, George is young and figuring it out like everybody is. ... He’s come in here and been very much a sponge to learn, working very hard at whatever we ask him to do.”
When discussing slot receivers, Canada first mentioned Claypool, Pickens, Austin and veteran Anthony Miller — who spent last season on the practice squad — as the players practicing there. Just don’t count out Olszewski, who was signed in March after three seasons with New England.
The Patriots only threw to Olszewski 14 times in his 37 games played, so it stands to reason the Steelers signed him primarily for his ability on kick and punt returns, but perhaps there’s more offensive potential in his 5-10 frame than Bill Belichick realized.
“It’s just seeing the defense for what it is and kind of knowing where the open spots are,” Olszewski, a former college cornerback who’s listed at 6-feet, said of playing inside. “When you’re in the slot, I think that’s what gets you open in those areas, is knowing what leverage a guy’s holding or what coverage they’re in and where the hole is. Even though your route’s kind of telling you here, you know you can’t just draw it on the paper, you’ve got to kind of just find a spot.”
And once they get to training camp, the Steelers have to find a slot.
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: June 11, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
