There is death, there are taxes, and there is the Steelers drafting Pro Bowl-caliber receivers on the second day of the NFL Draft. George Pickens largely justified that assumption last season when he put up 52/801/4 despite playing in a mostly anemic offense and then spent the summer emoting on his teammates and balling out in the preseason.
Based on this confluence of factors, it was not unreasonable to expect Pickens to truly break out in 2023—or, at the very least, marshal the Steelers offense from its creative void into a place of relative respectability.