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The 2022 NFL Draft is yet another consecutive draft that will have a plethora of talent at the wide receiver position. That bodes well for the Kansas City Chiefs, who traded away Tyreek Hill this offseason and have back-to-back picks in the first round and four picks in the first two rounds.
One receiver that has been consistently mocked to the Chiefs ahead of the draft is Georgia’s George Pickens. Pickens was part of the Georgia roster that beat Alabama in the National Championship last season. However, he comes with some baggage that has deterred NFL pundits from grading him as one of the top prospects at his position this year.
Pickens’ baggage includes a torn ACL that prevented him from playing a majority of the 2021 season, along with character issues, which coaches and scouts have acknowledged are “red flags” via The Athletic leading up to the draft.
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Nevertheless, the link between Pickens and the Chiefs — who could very well miss out on the top five or six wide receivers once their first selection comes on Day 1 at pick 29 — makes sense.
Pickens has even revealed the extent to which Kansas City has looked into him.
Chiefs Have Done ‘Tons of Homework’ on Pickens
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler shared a conversation he had with Pickens, in which the Georgia receiver detailed the range in which he believes he will be drafted, and which NFL teams have done extensive research on him.
“Pickens told me that he believes his range is Nos. 25 to 45, and the Packers, Chiefs and Cardinals are among teams that have done lots of homework on him,” Fowler wrote on April 27.
Part of Kansas City’s homework on Pickens was bringing him in for a top-30 visit, according to Fowler on April 6.
Pickens, who ran a 4.47 40-yard dash time at the NFL Scouting Combine and has tremendous ball skills, would be a great weapon for quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The question that remains is if the Chiefs found any information during their deep five of Pickens that would deter them from selecting him with either of their first-round picks.
How the draft plays out when it is underway on April 28 might ultimately determine if a marriage between Pickens and Kansas City happens, however.
Pickens Believes He Has Matured Since Viral Fight
One of Pickens’ biggest character flaws that have been pointed out during the pre-draft process was from back in 2019 when he got into a fight with a Georgia Tech player in the end zone.
Pickens told Fowler that he has become much more mature since that incident.
“The internet can portray you in different ways, but seeing me in a different light, I believe teams were pleasantly surprised,” Pickens said. “A lot of teams wanted to get to know me personally, so I took a few business trips and believe they saw that side of me.”
However, some talent evaluators around the NFL aren’t buying what Pickens is selling.
“There’s a lot of upside, but [Pickens] can’t get out of his own way,” an anonymous NFL scout told The Athletic. “He’s been enabled his whole life.”
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