When someone mentions divine intervention and your franchise quarterback in the same sentence, it definitely can come off as a real hot take.
That’s what Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk did in his recent episode on NFL on NBC, speaking with Myles Simmons about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons. Pittsburgh looked dominant yet again for the third time this preseason, scoring two touchdowns on its first two offensive drives with the first team in the game. QB Kenny Pickett particularly looked impressive in his brief time in the game, causing Florio to dive into Greek mythology to describe the situation the Steelers find themselves in after transitioning from future Hall of Fame QB Ben Roethlisberger to Kenny Pickett.
“As soon as Roethlisberger ascended into football heaven after that Monday night against [the] Browns, they went straight to work on getting their replacement,” Florio said on NFL on NBC’s YouTube channel. “They got him in Kenny Pickett. And they didn’t get desperate, they didn’t have to trade up for him. Everyone knew they were going to take Kenny Pickett and they sat there, and they waited for Kenny Pickett to be handed down to them by the football gods the same way the football gods accepted Ben Roethlisberger up into the pantheon of kind of all-time greats.”
This is a little over-the-top by Florio, but definitely appears to be a realistic representation of what Pittsburgh has gone through in the last year. Roethlisberger was at the end of the line in his NFL career, riding of into the sunset and kick-starting Pittsburgh’s process of finding its next franchise quarterback. They heavily scouted the 2022 draft class of quarterback prospects, which was considered one of the weakest classes at the position in years. They settled on taking Pickett 20th overall in the first round as a player they were familiar with who was the most pro-ready of the bunch.
Pickett had and up-and-down rookie season as most rookie quarterbacks do, throwing for 2,404 yards and seven touchdowns to nine interceptions. However, he showed improvement from the start of the year to down the stretch. Displaying leadership and poise in crucial moments of the game, he came up in the clutch against the Ravens and Raiders as he put together two fourth-quarter comebacks. He looks to be in another stratosphere from this preseason, making Florio believe he can reach that level of the upper-echelon quarterbacks in football if his hits his ceiling.
“You need a quarterback that can do a lot, can do it all, and can make it happen, and they may have already found him,” Florio said about Pickett. “He may be rocketing toward his ceiling, and that ceiling may be enough to put him in the conversation, premature to put him in, but he could be there with the Mahomeses, the Burrows, and the Allens if he keeps on that trajectory.”
This would have seemed like foolish talk just a month ago as Pickett wasn’t as heavily touted as QBs Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Josh Allen coming out of college. Still, his play on the football field is hard to ignore as Pickett finished the preseason completing 13-of-15 pass attempts for 201 yards and two touchdowns.
Simply put, Pickett has been Pittsburgh’s most impressive player this preseason, showing the huge leap the team needed him to take for Pittsburgh to be considered a legit contender in the AFC. HC Mike Tomlin called him the catalyst for the offense, and he’s sparked Pittsburgh’s first-team offense to five touchdowns on five drives in preseason play. Pickett will have an opportunity to prove that he belongs among Burrow and Mahomes as one of the AFC’s best quarterbacks this season, having the weapons, offensive line, and defense around him to lead Pittsburgh in its quest to end the franchise’s playoff victory drought in 2023.
