NFL Media reporter Judy Battista was at Steelers camp today, and she sat down with head coach Mike Tomlin, who talked about what he wants to see out of second-year QB Kenny Pickett.
“We need him to do fundamental things. We need him to take care of the football. We need him to communicate. I’ll never ask him not to be himself, but be his best self. Smile in the face of adversity, understand that his perspective is often his unit’s perspective and own that component of the job. He’s at a good place to kind of absorb some of those things. A year ago he was really focusing on surface-level things, assignment responsibilities and so forth. And now, because of his experience, he probably has a perspective where we can add to his to-do list and he’s absorbing more of the responsibility that comes with being him and that’s what I meant by it,” Tomlin said
Obviously, as Pickett develops and grows, he’s going to have more added to his plate. It’s natural with quarterbacks. Part of the reason why the playbook was basic last season was to ensure Pickett wasn’t overloaded with too much and he could focus on the basics and play winning football. Granted, it was too basic and rudimentary, but it was important not to try to do too much.
But Pickett’s in his second season now, so the training wheels are off and he should have more responsibility and more control over the offense. As Tomlin said, his perspective should be the offense’s perspective.
He’s the leader of the offense, and his leadership has been praised numerous times by various guys on both sides of the ball throughout the offseason. As he ascends as a professional quarterback and takes that next step, he’ll have more on his plate as he matures as a quarterback.
With the strides Pickett took throughout the year last season, it’s going to be interesting to watch to see how he looks early in the season this year. The Steelers have been clear that they want to be more explosive and take more shots downfield, which is something Pickett didn’t really show a lot of as a rookie.
If he can add a solid deep ball to his game and work on keeping turnovers down as he did in the second half of last season while continuing to make smart reads, the Steelers should be in for a good season.
Pickett’s development is the biggest storyline surrounding the Steelers this season, and with added pieces in place at receiver and the offensive line, he’s in line to prove that he can be a franchise quarterback. He’ll have his ups and downs as every quarterback does, but I think that Pickett can really prove that he’s going to be the guy.
By giving him more and more, Tomlin and the rest of the organization are showing faith in him by letting him have a little more control and taking the reins of the offense. It’s going to be interesting to see how he handles it, but I’m confident that Pickett can prove he’ll be the guy this season.
