George Pickens’ injury alters hopes for Georgia’s national football championship

George Pickens’ injury alters hopes for Georgia’s national football championship

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George Pickens’ injury affects Georgia’s national title hopes

1 There is no way to hide how much this injury stinks to George Pickens. Entering his junior season, Pickens looked set to become one of the sport’s biggest wide receivers.

Instead, he will spend much of 2021 now working to return from knee surgery to repair a torn ACL. Georgia announced the news of injury on Wednesday, with coach Kirby Smart commenting on the news

“The good news is that MRI has proved to be an isolated lesion, with no other structures involved,” said Smart. “George is a hard worker. I know that he will bring to rehabilitation the same work ethic that he shows in practice every day. “

Related: George Pickens to perform knee surgery after ACL injury

Pickens has been Georgia’s best receiver in terms of yards and touchdowns for the past two seasons. Although he did not improve statistically as a second year, his game really took off when JT Daniels became the starting defender.

In these four final games, Pickens collected 23 receptions for 373 yards and four touchdowns. Georgia won all four of those games as well.

This defeat is not only devastating for Georgia, but for college football as a whole. Pickens was a lot of fun to watch.

Related: ‘Bye’ George Pickens, social media reacts to ACL injury news

two If there is one player perhaps more affected by Pickens’ injury, it is Daniels. The two had an obvious connection last season and decided to build it only in the off-season.

Even when Pickens was not open, Daniels felt comfortable playing for Pickens because the latter was talented enough to give up at best and prevent the opposing defense from intercepting.

Now even more pressure is on Daniels’ shoulders. He still has a lot of talent around him and Smart publicly named Daniels as Georgia’s full-back this week.

If Georgia wants to win a national championship, Daniels would always have to be Georgia’s best player. But Pickens would certainly help to ease the burden that Daniels now carries.

3 As for the wide receiver room in particular, two players believe they see an increase in playing time and responsibility.

Related: What comes after George Pickens’ injury: Jermaine Burton’s role may increase

The most obvious is Jermaine Burton. The second year had a strong freshman season, with a 197-yard performance against the State of Mississippi being a better performance than Pickens has ever had.

Burton looked like a possible outstanding candidate this spring due to his athletic gifts and his ability to grow in this off-season as he entered his second season on the show.

“Last year, we were not able to be very versatile, because Jermaine Burton was trying to learn a position,” said Smart. “Now, we are training Jermaine Burton to learn both sides. He was Z last year; it needs to be Z and X. There are so many little things that they are much more advanced in terms of knowledge.

The other name is Justin Robinson, a redshirt freshman. It is the only receiver that offers a Pickens-like physical construction. So far this spring, former Georgia wide receiver Terrence Edwards has heard good things about how Robinson has been training.

Georgia will need Kearis Jackson, Arian Smith and others to do more in 2021 to try to replicate the numbers Pickens did.

4 Pickens’ injury also puts a little more pressure on wide receivers Dominick Blaylock and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint. The two suffered injuries at the end of the season during the 2020 season and will spend spring training recovering.

“Both young people are running in a straight line and starting to increase their workload,” said Smart in early March. “They are not working with us on our off-season conditioning program, which means that they are not in actual exercise. They have to work separately, but they are increasing speeds ”.

Related: Wide receivers injured in Georgia ‘on schedule to where they need to be’ before spring training begins

With healthy Pickens, Georgia can afford to be cautious in bringing back the two talented wide receivers. Georgia isn’t going to rush either of them back, but that means the Bulldogs are going to need to get a little more out of these two former best recruits.

It is also worth noting that Blaylock and Rosemy-Jacksaint are the candidates in second and third places classified as wide receiver that Georgia has signed with Smart. Now with Pickens out, the three suffered injuries at the end of the season during their careers in Georgia.

5 Another way Georgia can make up for the loss of Pickens is by spreading more targets for running backs and tight ends. Sometimes in the last season, Georgia saw James Cook, John FitzPatrick and Darnell Washington emerge as useful weapons, albeit in small sample sizes.

Bulldogs will clearly need to plan ways to involve them more. Smart noted that Georgia is well ahead of where the attack was a season ago, and that will allow Georgia to delve into Todd Monken’s bag of tricks.

Monken did an excellent job of trying to open the players last season and that will be even more important now with Pickens out. Tight ends and running backs benefit the most from a deeper Monken manual.

6 The way Pickens responds and attacks rehab goes along the way to determine whether he is able to contribute to the 2021 team. Each ACL injury is different and it is not out of the question for Pickens to make an effort to return at the end of the season. .

But that implies that Pickens takes care of everything during his recovery process. As Smart said when praising cornerback Kelee Ringo, this is not always the case with players returning from injury.

“A lot of guys get hurt and leave,” said Smart. “He[Ringo] never checked out. He registered. He sat in front of the meeting. He answered questions every day

There is also the fact that Pickens will be eligible for draft after this season. He can choose to declare himself for the NFL draft after this season, whether he plays for Georgia again or not. Obviously, Pickens also has the ability to return to school for another season if he decides to do so.

Pickens has some choices to make regarding his future in Georgia. The way he will choose to deal with the coming months will speak volumes about himself, specifically for potential NFL teams.

7 As problematic as this injury is for Georgia, Bulldogs are well positioned to deal with it. Pickens was injured in his fourth football practice. There is a lot of time to adapt the attack to cover the loss of its most talented game creator.

Pickens’ absence should also not cost Georgia SEC East. Bulldogs are still superior to all teams in the division and Bulldogs will still be favorites to reach Atlanta for the SEC championship.

Where Pickens’ defeat will be most likely to be felt in that SEC championship game, as well as the season opener against Clemson. Looking at the last three games of the national championship, the winner obtained at least 150 yards of reception from his main receiver. Justyn Ross had 153 yards against Alabama, Ja’Marr Chase amassed 221 yards against Clemson and Devonta Smith finished 215 yards in the win against Ohio State.

Pickens had the best chance of reaching that level for Georgia. It’s not like the Bulldogs have a replacement ready to do what Pickens did. The Bulldogs could look to the transfer portal to add a veteran to the position, but apart from Jordan Davis and Daniels, there was no more irreplaceable player from a talent standpoint than Pickens.

8 Smart and the Bulldogs talk about fighting adversity all the time. With Pickens away from home for at least most of the 2021 campaign, the Georgia team now faces a lot of that.

This injury does not prevent Georgia from winning a national championship. Georgia has more than enough time and talent to overcome this injury. Alabama lost Jaylen Waddle last season and continued to hum on the offensive side of the ball.

But for a program that has gone on for more than 40 years without earning any, that task will certainly be more difficult in 2021 without the superdental Pickens.

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