Towards the end of the 2023 NFL season, the Pittsburgh Steelers had the most recent entry into the 1000-yard receiving club. George Pickens finished the season with 1140 receiving yards, becoming the 14th member of the elusive club for the Pittsburgh Steelers who crossed 1000 yards during a single season. Pickens accomplishment comes two seasons after Diontae Johnson entered the club with 1161 receiving yards in 2021.

To put into perspective this club, what might be most notable is the Steelers Hall of Fame wide receiver who is not a part of this group. Granted it was a different era in the NFL before the passing game really exploded, but Lynn Swann, despite his four Super Bowls, three Pro Bowl selections, and a First Team All-Pro, never crossed 900 receiving yards in any single season. Swan played nine years in the NFL all with the Steelers from 1974 through 1982.

The first member of the Pittsburgh Steelers to land in this group was Buddy Dial in 1961 when he racked up 1047 receiving yards in 14 games. Dial followed it up two years later with a 1295 yard season. The only other member of this club prior to the NFL merger in 1970 was Roy Jefferson who had 1074 and 1079 yard receiving seasons in 1968 and 1969 respectively. These are the only two members to go over 1000 yards before the NFL expanded to a 16-game season in 1978.

The next member of this club did not come in until 1979 when John Stallworth had 1183 receiving yards. Stallworth also topped this amount in 1981 and 1984 with 1098 yards and 1395 yards. The year after Stallworth saw Louis Lipps enter the club in 1985 with 1134 yards, his only season going over the 1000-yard mark.

In the 1990s, the Steelers only saw three 1000 yards receiving seasons with two coming from the same player. Yancey Thigpen went for 1307 yards in 1995 and was followed by Charles Johnson with 1008 yards in 1996. Thigpen got back into the action with 1398 yards in 1997.

The 2001 season saw the first time the Steelers had two players go over 1000 receiving yards in the same season, and both players did so in back-to-back years. Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress just hit the mark in 2001 with 1003 and 1008 yards respectively, but both of them went over 1300 yards in 2002. In all, Hines Ward finished with over 1000 receiving yards six times as he also did so in 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2009. But in 2009, Ward was not alone as Santonio Holmes also hit the mark going for 1248 receiving yards in his only season doing so with the Steelers.

The next two seasons saw a new member in the club in back-to-back years with Mike Wallace going for 1257 receiving yards in 2010 and 1193 receiving yards in 2011. But Wallace’s second season saw a passing of the guard as he was not alone in the category with Antonio Brown at 1108 receiving yards as well. It was the first of Brown’s seven seasons with the Steelers going over 1000 yards. In 2015, Brown set the Steelers all-time receiving yards record in a season when he went for 1834 yards, eclipsing his total from 2014 of 1698 yards. In fact, Brown has the top four seasons of receiving yards in Steelers history.

Much like when Brown took over for Wallace and both hit the mark in 2011, the same thing appeared to possibly happened in 2018 when Brown had his last 1000 yard season with the Steelers but was joined by JuJu Smith-Schuster who had 1426 receiving yards. Unfortunately, this was Smith-Schuster‘s only season going over 1000 yards with the Steelers as the next person to hit the mark was the aforementioned Diontae Johnson in 2021.

Now that the history of the 1000-yard club has been told, who will be the next member of the Pittsburgh Steelers to do so? With George Pickens already in the club, this is an extremely difficult question. Rather than have a new member, the most likely scenario would be for Pickens to join the list of players who have done so in multiple seasons. If so, he would become the ninth member of this group.

With the Steelers having so many questions as to where the production will come from with the rest of their wide receivers, the next member of this club may not be on the Steelers at this time or even in the NFL. Even with a 17th game added to the season, there isn’t an overwhelming candidate to cross 1000 yards in a season at this time. Although some may throw out the possibility of Pat Freiermuth entering the club, he would be the first tight end in Steelers history to do so as the most receiving yards in Steelers history by a tight end is held by Heath Miller with 816 yards in 2012.

With NFL passing attacks evolving to be more dynamic each season, reaching 1000 yards in a 17-game season may not be as illustrious as it once was. In 2023, the NFL saw 28 players reach 1000 receiving yards, the most since there were 29 in 2019. But even as the possibility of reaching the threshold increases, do the Steelers currently have someone on their roster other than Pickins who is a candidate to reach this mark? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.