Add former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Plaxico Burress to the list of believers in quarterback Kenny Pickett. Today, Burress joined The Carton Show and shut down host Craig Carton and his Pickett insults and doubts, voicing his support for the Steelers quarterback.
In a video of the segment posted to the YouTube page Shajid Enter 10, Burress said he believes that Pickett “emulates everything about Pittsburgh.”
“Kenny Pickett fits the standard of what a Pittsburgh quarterback is all about,” Burress said. “He can throw the ball from the pocket, he can get out of the pocket, he’s tough. He played in Pittsburgh in college, he’s a tough guy. He just emulates everything about a Pittsburgh quarterback. He’s in tune with the city, the people love him and that’s what you gotta love about him.”
Pickett’s rookie year didn’t set the world on fire, and if you didn’t pay close attention to the Steelers his stats would seem to paint that he had a bad season. Throwing for 2,404 yards, seven touchdowns, and nine interceptions certainly doesn’t look good. But when you watched Pickett throughout the season you saw him consistently get better as the season went along, leading to many people who pay attention to the Steelers to believe that Pickett can take a jump this year.
Carton does not pay attention to the Steelers,. When asking about if people inside the Steelers believe in Pickett, he also asked about Burress his thoughts on Pickett’s hand size despite Pickett already playing a year in the NFL with his “small” hands.
“No that doesn’t matter,” Burress said. “He has shown that he can throw the football. He’s tough, and all he has to do is manage the football and not turn the football over and get wins and he’ll be just fine.”
Pickett’s hands clearly haven’t affected him as he throws the football just fine with gloves on. We saw towards there end of the season that in the cold weather he throws just the same as in warm weather. Carton bringing this up is very on brand for him, but it was nice to see Burress bring the talk back things that actually matter and outline what Pickett has to do to be successful.
With how good the Steelers defense is when fully healthy, and looking at how the team played last season when the offense doesn’t turn the football over, things look really good. In the Steelers’ last nine games, they went 7-2 while Pickett threw five touchdowns and only one interception. While the touchdown numbers can improve, as long as he isn’t giving the ball away like he did in his first few games the team should be fine.
However, Steelers fans want the team to be more than fine, they want the team to be good. That will require Pickett taking a leap in his second season. We don’t know how Pickett’s sophomore season will be, but he is clearly putting in a lot of hard work this offseason to build chemistry with his teammates and improve his craft. There will certainly need to be improvements from him this season, but Pickett has shown the ability to grow from his mistakes, setting up a highly anticipated second year from Steelers fans across the globe.
Hopefully Pickett can take a big second year jump so not only the Steelers are good, but also so we can stop hearing talking heads talk about his hand size.
