Georgia WR George Pickens Visiting with Green Bay Packers

Treylon Burks, Sam Williams, Tyquan Thornton, and Velus Jones, Jr. are a few of the prospects that we know the Green Bay Packers brought in on official pre-draft visits. And now, according to Bill Huber of SI, you can add Georgia wide receiver George Pickens to that list as well.

It’s no secret that adding to the wide receiver position is a must for the Green Bay Packers. In terms of specific needs at the position, Green Bay needs a vertical threat, some added YAC wouldn’t be a bad thing, and they also need a go-to option for Aaron Rodgers.

Enter Pickens, who would see a high volume of targets right away with how this Green Bay Packers receiver room is constructed and provide some needed play-making abilities.

Pickens would measure in at 6’3″ – 195 pounds, fitting that big-bodied receiver mold that we know the Packers covet. He would run a 4.47-second 40-yard split and posted a RAS of 9.33 out of 10.

Unfortunately, Pickens appeared in only four games and had one target this past season after suffering an ACL injury during the spring of 2021. However, in his previous two seasons, he was an important member of the Georgia passing attack.

According to PFF ($$), Pickens caught 62 of his 95 targets during that span, at 14.0 yards per catch with 11 touchdowns. He has some slot experience but primarily lined up on the boundary and his average depth of target during those 2019 and 2020 seasons came 16.2 yards downfield.

To sum up what Pickens can offer the Packers, Drae Harris of The Draft Network noted his most redeeming qualities as his athleticism, his agility, and catch radius. For more on Pickens, here is what else Harris wrote about him in his pre-draft report:

"He is sudden off the line of scrimmage and quickly closes the DB’s cushion. He is fluid and shows good body control as a route-runner, easily attacking leverage against man coverage. He has a very good catch radius and shows tremendous athleticism to contort his body and make difficult catches on off-target throws. He is a natural hands-catcher with strong mitts who easily catches the ball away from his body. He is a matchup problem in slant/fade situations. He can defeat press with foot quickness but will need to add mass, bulk, and upper-body strength to his wiry frame in order to play through physicality in the NFL."

Now for an added perspective, this is what Lance Zierlein of NFL.com had to say about the Georgia receiver:

"“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.”"

In a loaded wide receiver class, there is a bit of a range on where Pickens could be selected in the draft. He could be taken in the back-end of Round 1 or into Round 2, depending on how the board falls. With receiver being such a major need, Green Bay could certainly spend multiple early-round selections on the position as they try to reshape this unit.