Heading into his second NFL season, much has been made about the leap that Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett can make from his rookie season. Pittsburgh drafted Pickett 20th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, making him the first quarterback off the board. While he enjoyed a breakout season in his final year at Pitt, Pickett was often referred to as the most “pro-ready” quarterback prospect in the draft class, having HC Mike Tomlin commend him for his accuracy and his high floor.
Talking about the floor with your potential franchise quarterback isn’t something fans want to hear. The want to know what the ceiling is. They want to know if their quarterback can reach the levels of Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, who wow people with crazy arm talent and the athleticism to make plays with their legs.
Pickett hasn’t often been referred to in the same light of these top quarterbacks in the league, being considered more of a “game manager” in a similar mold to a quarterback like Jimmy Garoppolo. Speaking on The Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan, Pro Football Focus’ Brad Spielberger compared Pickett to another franchise quarterback, stating that having a career like Vikings QB Kirk Cousins would be a win-win for Pickett and Pittsburgh.
“Absolutely, that is a smashing success,” Spielberger said about Pickett’s career emulating Cousins. “Even in the first round, at pick 15 or wherever exactly Kenny landed, Kirk Cousins’ career would probably be a 90th percentile or higher outcome. It’s very hard to a 10- to 15-year starter in the NFL. You take that all day long and you trust this organization to do enough around him, to provide enough talent on both sides of the football to sneak into the playoffs, make a Super Bowl run, something like that.”
Cousins is a controversial player in the league, having had notable success as a starting quarterback with Washington and Minnesota throughout his career, but hasn’t been able to deliver more than one playoff victory since arriving in the league. Still, Cousins has been a franchise quarterback for over a decade, boasting a 73-62-2 record in the regular season with seven seasons above 4,000 passing yards, three seasons above 30 TD passes, and a career completion percentage of 66.8.
Statistically speaking, anyone would sign up right now for Pickett to have those kind of numbers on a yearly basis. Cousins has been a constant producer at QB in the league while not having the arm talent of a Mahomes or the athleticism of a Lamar Jackson. In comparison, Pickett may not have a rocket arm either, but he is a better athlete than Cousins, suggesting that perhaps Pickett can become an athletically superior version of Cousins in the league should he continue to take strides forward as a passer.
Obviously, we want to see Pickett become a top five to 10 quarterback in the league and command the team the same way Ben Roethlisberger did for nearly two decades. However, the Steelers are showing a similar strategy that the Vikings have enacted with Cousins, building up the offense and defense around him to maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses. Should Pickett ultimately become a more athletic version of Cousins, it doesn’t mean that Pittsburgh’s championship hopes should vanish. Rather, the Steelers need to make sure they have a strong supporting cast around Pickett to have him play at his best when it matters most.
