Steelers WR George Pickens makes absurd pick for top-five WR of all time
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens recently revealed his top five wideouts of all time, and while four of the choices seem reasonable, his pick for No. 5 is a head-scratcher.
First of all, as is the case with a lot of young players across various sports, Pickens certainly has a recency bias with his list, as Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Michael Crabtree and Randy Moss played most, if not all, of their entire career in the 21st century. In Pickens' defense, both Moss and "Megatron" are already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Jones will surely someday join them.
Jerry Rice is No. 1 on many people's list for best wide receivers of all time, and deservedly so.
Where Pickens' list really gets wacky is his inclusion of Crabtree.
The now-35-year-old had a solid, albeit unspectacular 11-year NFL career after being selected 10th overall by the San Francisco 49ers in 2009. One of Crabtree's best seasons came in 2012, when he had 85 catches on 127 targets for a career-high 1,105 receiving yards and tied high mark of nine receiving scores.
What Crabtree is perhaps best known for, though, is being the target of one of the most epic postgame interviews in league history, following San Francisco's NFC Championship Game loss to Richard Sherman and the Seattle Seahawks.
Crabtree went on to have only one other 1,000-yard season, finishing with a career-high 89 catches for 1,003 yards and eight touchdowns in 2016 with the then-Oakland Raiders.
The Texas Tech product is nowhere near the top of any wide receiver leaderboard in NFL history, finishing his career with 637 receptions (73rd) for 7,499 yards (132nd) and 54 touchdowns (117th). Crabtree never made a Pro Bowl, making Pickens' choice even more blasphemous.
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