Wide receiver George Pickens is not scrimping on his goals when it comes to his second NFL season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I want to get over 1,000 yards, go to the Pro Bowl,” Pickens said after a Pittsburgh OTA practice last week. “I want us to win the Super Bowl.”

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Selected from Georgia in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the former Hoover High School star had 52 receptions for 801 yards and four touchdowns in his first season as the Steelers posted a 9-8 record and missed the playoffs.

Pickens’ rookie highlights include a 100-yard game against the New York Jets on Oct. 2 and one of the 2022 season’s best catches against the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 22. He also scored one touchdown on his three rushing attempts.

Pittsburgh is in the final portion of its offseason program, when teams are allowed to conduct 10 days of organized team practice activity, usually referred to as OTAs. The Steelers have their final four OTA practices scheduled for this week, then will wrap up their offseason program with mandatory minicamp on June 13-15.

“We’ve had a really good first couple of days here together,” said Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett about Pickens during an appearance on “The PM Team with Poni and Mueller” on KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh last week. “He’s got great communication. When we’re on the field and stuff, we’ll just constantly be talking about what we see, what he sees and where I need him, and he goes out there and does exactly what we ask him to do and then you just kind of let his talents take over. You don’t want to have him overthinking.

“I always just tell him I’ll just put it in his zip code, and he can do the rest. The guy makes unbelievable plays. Excited to go into Year 2 with him and build off what we did in Year 1 together.”

Pickett and Pickens were Pittsburgh’s first two draft picks last year. Each started 12 games in 2022, when the Steelers offense placed 26th in points, 23rd in total yards, 24th in passing yards and 16th in rushing yards among the NFL’s 32 teams.

The Steelers added two more former Georgia standouts – tackle Broderick Jones in the first round and tight end Darnell Washington in the third round – to their offense in the 2023 NFL Draft and signed guards Isaac Seumalo and Nate Herbig in free agency this offseason.

Pittsburgh also obtained nine-year veteran and three-time 1,000-yard receiver Allen Robinson in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams. Pickens said Robinson had been an asset to him during the offseason program.

“Just the ins and the outs, just the ways of the game, different coverages-wise,” Pickens said. “I played in the SEC, so I done seen almost every coverage, too, but how to attack it, whether a guy’s in man, whether he’s trailing you, that’s the type of stuff I ask Allen for.

“We’re always talking ball. When I talk to Allen, it’s always about football. When we were coming off like 20 minutes ago we was talking about a certain route, like: If we want to take that type of leverage, do we have to stem in that much?”

A Pro Bowler and a 1,000-yard receiver in 2021, wide receiver Diontae Johnson led Pittsburgh with 86 receptions for 882 yards in 2022, but he did not have a touchdown reception.

Johnson returns, and the Steelers have added Hakeem Butler to their wide-receiver corps after he finished second in the XFL with 51 receptions and 599 receiving yards and led the league with eight touchdown receptions this spring.

“I don’t know how the targets are going to go,” Pickens said. “I just know, when it come my way, I’m going to try to make a play.”

At Hoover, Pickens earned All-State recognition in 2017 and 2018. In Pickens’ first All-State season, the Bucs won their second AHSAA Class 7A championship in a row.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.