The Pittsburgh Steelers have a loaded roster with talent at almost every position group. Currently, the quarterback room could be considered the most questionable. Starting signal-caller Kenny Pickett is heading into his third season in the NFL, with a lot on the table. Pickett will be fighting for his starting job, as his first two seasons with the Steelers have been underwhelming.
Preseason Pickett caught a lot of eyes before the 2023 season started. The Steelers’ offense and Pickett seemed to have figured things out. The starting offense scored a touchdown on every drive they played. However, opening week hosting the San Francisco 49ers brought the Steelers back to reality. Pickett was not the same. The Steelers and their offense continued their struggles from the previous season.
Through his first two seasons in Pittsburgh, Pickett has only thrown for 13 touchdown passes in 25 games played. He’s thrown 13 interceptions and just 179 yards per game on average. Obviously, looking at those numbers alone is not good. 13 touchdowns is just not acceptable. Pickett did seem to have improved with protecting the ball this past season, as he finished the year without throwing an interception in his final eight games. Even with that said however, The 33rd Team has recently ranked Pickett as one of the worst quarterbacks in all of football.
Steelers’ Kenny Pickett Ranked 31st Among QB’s
Ahead of Pickett, the list has quarterbacks like Will Levis, Sam Howell, Aidan O’Connell, and Desmond Ridder. If the Steelers want to start winning some playoff games like they’ve said, the quarterback play has to be better than the names listed previously. Like most, film analyst Derrik Klassen is not high on Pickett.
“Pickett remains frenetic in the pocket and undisciplined in how he reads the field. Throws over the middle are completely absent from his game, and it’s clear he is only comfortable throwing quick game and vertical shots down the sideline.”
The Steelers are known for always being in the mix for the playoffs, even at their lowest. So, if you finally give them competent quarterback play with the weapons and defense they have, they could be dangerous. Quarterback is obviously the big question this offseason for Pittsburgh. The Steelers have already announced that Pickett will be the starter going into next season. He will have to improve on the field drastically however, to get them where they want to be.
Pickett has shown some positives though. He has the clutch gene, as he has multiple game-winning drives for the Steelers. This is something that Head Coach Mike Tomlin is very appreciative of. This could be the only thing keeping Pickett in Pittsburgh to this day. Two of those game-winning drives came against the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens, which is the icing on the cake for Tomlin.
Steelers fans still holding onto hope for Pickett comes from the fact that Pickett has only had six full quarters of football without former Offensive Coordinator, Matt Canada. Under his scheme, Pickett struggled and wasn’t consistent. It’s key to note however, that Pickett did play noticeably better without Canada in Week 12 and the first half of Week 13 before suffering a serious ankle injury. Pickett would not re-enter the lineup for the rest of the season, which only drew more and bigger question marks.
The Steelers have been named favorites to land multiple free agent quarterbacks, and have been projected in some mock drafts to take a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft. Maybe this will light a fire under Pickett and give him the boost he needs to become a franchise quarterback.
