The 2022 season was one of progression for then-rookie QB Kenny Pickett. From coming off the bench in Week 4 to starting Week 5 and taking his lumps prior to the bye week. Down the stretch, he and the Pittsburgh Steelers finished strong, winners of seven of their last nine, and nearly making it into the playoffs. It was a team effort, offense, defense, and special teams, but Pickett helped lead the charge. His two game-winning drives to beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Eve and the Baltimore Ravens on the road were grow-up moments for him that provided real encouragement into 2023.
But Pickett is no longer the rookie. He’s the Steelers’ unquestioned starter. And there’s still lots of work to do. Steelers Quarterbacks Coach Mike Sullivan spoke with reporters Wednesday morning and discussed the next steps Pickett must take.
“The level of the speed and the anticipation, the ball location,” he said via the team’s PR department. “Playing within the pocket, those opportunities. The faster he’s able to do those things and do them well, there’s no short shortcut to that.”
Frankly, they’re all observations we made in our Wednesday video breaking down Pickett’s entire 2022 season that looked at the good and bad. While there’s plenty on tape to like, some of the biggest pitfalls we pointed out was needing to better anticipate breaking routes, properly leading receivers in the flat, and a tendency to bail on clean pockets.
Some of those issues are common for rookies, especially a mobile one like him who wants to scramble, and some of that improved throughout the year. After the bye, Pickett did fight the urge to run and played from the pocket more often. You can check our full breakdown below.
While the Steelers are building a run-heavy team that will take some pressure off Pickett, they’ll still need him to make plays. It’s impossible to compete in a QB-heavy AFC and AFC North without a quarterback who can step up in big moments.
For Sullivan, there’s no secret for Pickett improving in all those areas. It comes down to old fashioned hard work, doing it over and over until it’s ingrained in his brain.
“It’s like the old adage, ‘You do it over and over and over again. Don’t do it until you can’t get it right. Do it until you can’t do it wrong.’ It’s real memory. It’s muscle memory,” Sullivan said. “That’s the next step.”
Pittsburgh will also have to give Pickett the freedom to take those leaps in his sophomore year. Last year, the Steelers limited his freedom and handled him very carefully. Some of that was justified; it was a model that worked and turned their season around. But if the Steelers want to truly compete, want to win a playoff game, Pickett will have to progress in a meaningful way.
