Georgia Bulldogs wide receiver George Pickens tore his ACL in spring practice of 2021. Pickens fought back to play in Georgia’s last four games of the 2021 season.
The former five-star recruit out of Hoover, Alabama, made a spectacular 52-yard catch in the national championship against Alabama. Pickens is capable of making catches that very few players in the NFL or college can make.
Pickens has some flaws and minor character concerns (see: Georgia Tech game in 2019). Pickens is not perfect like all 2022 NFL draft prospects. He is projected as a second-round pick in the upcoming draft.
George Pickens has a lot to gain from the 2022 NFL draft process. He can boost his stock if he shows that he is fully recovered from his torn ACL. The NFL combine will be key for Pickens.
NFL.com compares George Pickens to Detroit Lions wide receiver Josh Reynolds ahead of the draft. Who is Josh Reynolds?
Josh Reynolds has 1,846 career receiving yards across 76 career NFL games. He has played five NFL seasons and helped the Los Angeles Rams make the Super Bowl during the 2018-2019 NFL season.
Reynolds hauled in a career-high 618 receiving yards for the Rams in 2020. Reynolds was a fourth-round pick out of Texas A&M in the 2017 NFL draft.
Here’s how NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein describes George Pickens’ traits and NFL potential.
Lanky perimeter wideout with exciting ball skills but in desperate need of additional play strength and a clean bill of health. Resilient to make it back so quickly after an ACL tear, but needs to show quick-cutting ability for route-running. Pickens possesses borderline elite ball skills with in-air adjustments, strong hands and an enormous catch radius. However, he fails to put defenders on his hip and command the catch space to make his work less cluttered. The routes need more polish and physicality but he has the athletic ability to become a viable target on all three levels as a likely Day 2 draft pick with a little wider gap between ceiling and floor than NFL teams might like.
This evaluation may be a little bit harsh on George Pickens. Pickens needs to improve his ability to gain separation, but his ability to catch the ball and speed should make him one of the top wide receivers in this NFL draft.
Pickens has one of the highest ceilings of any pass-catcher in the draft as long as he can stay healthy. He deserves a lot of credit for fighting back to return late in the 2021-2022 college football season.
