Mike Sando of The Athletic recently published his 2023 Quarterback Tiers piece where he had 50 league insiders, including coaches and front office personnel place the starting quarterbacks into tiers based on their impressions of each passer. The anonymous insiders included eight general managers, 10 head coaches, 15 coordinators, 10 executives, four quarterbacks coaches, and three involved in coaching/analytics.
Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett found himself ranked in Tier 4 alongside Brock Purdy of the 49ers, Jordan Love of the Packers, Sam Howell of the Commanders, Desmond Ridder of the Falcons, and Gardner Minshew of the Colts.
“By most accounts, the Steelers have found themselves a solid starting quarterback,” Sando wrote about Pickett. “Solid but not spectacular.”
“His best traits are going to be his moxie, decision-making, toughness, leadership, things that really don’t have a number,” an offensive coach said about Pickett.
Pickett was praised by HC Mike Tomlin and former GM Kevin Colbert for his intangibles after selecting him 20th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft, commending him for his leadership, poise, high floor, and his accuracy. A lot of those qualities aren’t going to have a number attached to them like the offensive coach mentioned above, rather being displayed in crucial moments during a game where Pickett needs to be able to come in the clutch to drive the football down the field and get the must-have score.
Several defensive coordinators and a front office executive also spoke about their impressions of Pickett in Sando’s piece, seeing the tools he brings to the table, but also the lack of elite upside compared to several other QBs in the league.
“I think he sees it, and when things break down, he’s much more mobile than you think,” one of the defensive coordinators said. “I just don’t think he has the elite arm talent.”
“His talent is limited,” another coordinator said. “All the rest of it is top-notch.”
“He had a game-winning drive into a strong wind against Vegas on Christmas Eve,” an exec said. “We just need to see a lot more. Tier 4 is perfect for him now.”
The assessments from the defensive coordinators and the front office executive above are fair given where Pickett currently is heading into his second season. He has displayed his mobility on several occasions during his rookie season, being able to extend plays outside of the pocket unlike Ben Roethlisberger had been unable to do for the last several years of his career.
The arm talent topic is often a heavily debated one as Pickett doesn’t have a bad arm but just lacks that power and velocity guys like Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Josh Allen have as franchise quarterbacks. Pickett said his arm strength has improved from last season when he reported to training camp, but even if that’s the case, it likely wouldn’t be that night-and-day of a difference. Still, Pickett has a comparable arm to quarterbacks like Kirk Cousins and Mac Jones, whom another defensive coordinator compared him to in the article, quarterbacks who are capable starters that may not have that elite arm strength but bring a lot of other positives to the table.
Ultimately, Pickett needs to build off his rookie season to show that he belongs in the discussion with the other franchise quarterbacks in the NFL. Surpassing 3,000 passing yards and 20 passing TDs should be solid benchmarks that Pickett can easily attain in 2023 along with showing more consistency and effectiveness on a drive-by-drive basis.
Pickett is in great position to take that step forward and vault up a tier or two in next year’s rankings with a strong performance this season. Now it’s a matter of executing and turning all of that speculation into results for the Steelers as they look to make a playoff run this season.
