Kirby Smart updates the status of WR George Pickens

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart offered an update on star wide receiver George Pickens who tore his ACL in spring practice.

“Two weeks ago he had a meeting with Dr. Andrews and he visited with him,” Smart said. “Of course, he’s the foremost authority. (Director of Sports Medicine) Ron (Courson) went, his mother went. They had a sit-down meeting and he felt like he was in a really good spot and cleared him to do some football activity in terms of route running and things on air, not contact. George is running really well.”

Smart continued.

“You wouldn’t think just watching there was anything wrong with him,” Smart said. “George has done a tremendous job of doing what he’s supposed to do in rehab, being where he’s supposed to be. He works out during the practice. He only gets a little bit of time with us. He’s prescribed 15-20 minutes at the beginning of practice and then he goes and does his rehab program and his lifting program and he’s done a great job of doing that.”

Though George Pickens is back running routes at practice, Smart doesn’t have a timeline for his star wide reciever’s return and is playing it safe with Pickens, who is likely to be a highly-touted prospect in the NFL Draft, whenever he declares.

“I don’t know the timeline on that,” Smart said. “I do know that he’s working really hard. We’ve not made it about George’s return, that’s not what we talk about, we talk about George getting healthy and that’s what we’ve consistently sold to him.”

For a Georgia team that has national championship aspirations in 2021, the return of Pickens would be a massive boost to the Bulldogs offense.

George Pickens had 513 receiving yards in eight games last season for Georgia, quickly building a rapport with quarterback JT Daniels, who started the last four games of the 2020 season. In Daniels’ last two starts, against No. 25 Missouri and No. 8 Cincinnati, Pickens was on the receiving end of 12 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns.

As a freshman in 2019, George Pickens had 37 receptions for 552 yards, including a breakout performance in the Sugar Bowl, torching Baylor’s defense for 175 yards and one touchdown.

Coming out of high school, George Pickens was a five-star recruit from Hoover (AL.) High School. As a senior, Pickens finished his senior season with 69 catches for 1,368 yards and 16 touchdowns.