In his second season with the Black and Gold, quarterback Kenny Pickett of the Pittsburgh Steelers had an awful 2023 campaign.
In addition to having trouble with accuracy and showing little aggression while pushing the ball down field, Pickett also appeared to negatively impact the Steelers’ passing offense as a whole. Pickett struggled with injuries as well because of his poor pocket presence, which allowed him to take some hard blows and even scramble into sacks.
Pickett found himself on the sideline in Week 13 against the Arizona Cardinals due to a significant ankle injury that required tightrope surgery to expedite his recovery. After recovering, he never made it back into the starting lineup because Mason Rudolph was preferred by head coach Mike Tomlin and the Steelers, raising doubts about Pickett’s long-term status.
The Steelers still have a lot of needs at quarterback even though they have openly backed Pickett to start going forward. Derrik Klassen of the 33rd Team thinks so too, rating Pickett among the NFL’s worst starting quarterbacks going into the 2024 offseason.
By Klassen’s rankings, Pickett was ranked No. 31 out of 32 NFL starters, just ahead of Bailey Zappe of New England.
Whoa.
The Steelers were duped into believing that Kenny Pickett would be their Joe Burrow in miniature. That just hasn’t happened,” Klassen writes. “At this point, Pickett’s reading of the field is still chaotic and he lacks discipline.” His game is completely devoid of throws over the middle, and it is obvious that he is most at ease making vertical and quick game throws down the sideline.
“With his poor decision-making and inconsistent accuracy, that isn’t nearly enough of a formula to make for a good quarterback.”
There was hope that Pickett, who the Steelers selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, would be a slightly smaller version of Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow—a player who might not have the biggest frame or the strongest arm in the world, but who could win games on a regular basis thanks to his football IQ, processing speed, and accuracy.
That is not at all what has occurred.
For the most part, Pickett has been unconfident; he hardly ever drives the ball down the field and rarely takes chances with the ball to make plays in an attempt to stay out of trouble. Even if he hasn’t made many mistakes in the NFL, that doesn’t necessarily indicate he’s a competent football player.
For Pickett to be positioned between Zappe and Aidan O’Connell of Las Vegas is a terrible situation.
The heat mounts for Pickett in 2024 with the addition of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to the team. For him, this is a make-or-break season. Even while the Steelers have publicly expressed their internal support in him, they will still search for an upgrade.
