The Pittsburgh Steelers have not been in the position they’re now in at the quarterback position for a long time. 18 years, in fact. As in 2005, the 2023 season marks year two for their young franchise quarterback after taking time during his rookie season—starting as a backup—to establish himself as the unquestioned starter.
Nearly two decades ago it was Ben Roethlisberger, a soon-to-be Hall of Famer who actually became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl in year two. In the present day, it’s Kenny Pickett, whose team doesn’t feel quite as close. But former Steelers QB Charlie Batch, who was Roethlisberger’s backup for a long time, sees many parallels.
“This is gonna remind me exactly of how Ben Roethlisberger went from year one to year two”, he said on KDKA’s training camp all-access segment yesterday. “He had a chance to study all of his plays from the season before, very similar to what Kenny Pickett is going to do”.
Both were first-round picks and entered their rookie seasons as backups, but Roethlisberger had considerably greater success—with a more veteran and established supporting cast that was ready and waiting for him to take over.
Pickett’s team is going to take more work to get to that point, but he also still has a lot to prove as a player himself, and unlike 18 years ago, there’s more pressure on the quarterback’s arm. It’s more difficult to rely on the run game today, but it seems the Steelers will try to do so as much as they can.
“You see what they did on the offensive line, they upgraded that”, Batch pointed out. “They expect the running game to get better. When you have that, now he has to continue to gain the trust with [offensive coordinator] Matt Canada to allow him to push the ball down the field”.
Batch pointed out that the Steelers were among the least productive passing offenses in the league last season in terms of passes of 20 yards or more. “They need to elevate that and add that to his arsenal, and if he can do that, those big plays will now be incorporated in this offense”, he said of Pickett.
Much of that is a matter of simply doing it, because by the numbers Pickett was actually relatively successful when he did put the ball in the air. His accuracy was generally strong, but he needs more open targets down the field, and he can help improve that as well with better timing and throwing his receivers open rather than relying on contested catches.
That’s just one of the numerous areas being targeted for improvement, though, with arguably the biggest being his performance in the red zone. The Steelers moved the ball efficiently between the 20s in the second half of last season but too often failed to capitalize when it counted. Converting more field goals into touchdowns in 2023 will make a world of difference and get Pickett looker closer to Roethlisberger sooner rather than later.
