Pittsburgh Steelers announce pair of Friday transactions

The Pittsburgh Steelers announced a number of transactions on Friday. First, they signed offensive lineman Trent Scott to a one-year deal. Scott played in 53 games with 19 starts during four seasons. The offensive lineman spent two years with the Los Angeles Chargers from 2018-2019 and two seasons with the Carolina Panthers from 2020-2021.

In order to make room for Scott on the Steelers’ 90-man roster, the franchise waived guard Malcolm Pridgeon. Then there was also the signing of former Georgia Bulldog, George Pickens.

He became the first member of the Steelers 2022 rookie class to ink an official contract on Friday.

The former Georgia Bulldogs’ star signed a four-year deal with the franchise.

Pickens went No. 52 overall in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft. It was a great slot for the wideout after suffering an ACL injury ahead of the 2021 season. Even though he didn’t score a touchdown for Georgia on their journey to the national title, he had 14 touchdowns in the previous two seasons, along with 1,200-plus receiving yards.

The Steelers were high on George Pickens heading into the draft. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada recently shared that he appreciated the toughness the former Bulldog showed in making a return to the field late in the year.

“Coming out of last year as we started early draft prep, we thought he was maybe the best wide out coming out,” Canada said after the draft. “He had a tough injury there in the spring, showed great battle to come back and play late in the year for them. We were able to go to his Pro Day. He was impressive beyond belief at his Pro Day, showed no signs of injury or anything that way.”

The Steelers OC then identified one intangible that stood about about George Pickens. 

“The one intangible that you’ve got to give a lot of credit for is coming back and playing,” Canada added. “I don’t have the exact time, but eight and a half months from an injury to coming back and playing. He didn’t have a huge role, but he came back and played late, had some significant plays and fought to get back out there and play. To me, that’s a great show of his character right there. He easily could have said, ‘Hey, I’m going to get healthy and wait.’ We’ve all seen those things happen. They had a great team, obviously they had an exceptional season, but I think that shows a lot about him right there.”

On3’s Sean Labar also contributed to this article.