With 13 games of NFL experience under his belt and now entering his second season in the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett is an arrow-up guy at the most important position in sports.
A smart, cerebral quarterback that is driven to succeed, prepares well and reads and processes things rather quickly on the field, Pickett impressed late in his rookie season leading the Steelers in four fourth-quarter comeback wins and three game-winning drives.
That production down the stretch in the second half of his rookie season has carried over into the offseason, training camp and the preseason where Pickett has turned heads consistently and really looked the part of a franchise quarterback for the Black and Gold moving forward.
Former NFL GM Randy Mueller, who spent time as the GM of the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins in the early 2000s, certainly sees it with Pickett as well, stating that Pickett is the “most polished and diverse” young quarterback in a select group of names, including Green Bay’s Jordan Love, Chicago’s Justin Fields, New England’s Mac Jones, Atlanta’s Desmond Ridder and Washington’s Sam Howell.
In a piece for The Athletic Thursday, Mueller heaped praise on the Steelers’ young signal caller.
“Pickett’s play is the most polished and diverse of this group. He has a feel for the pocket, can process info and get the ball to targets based on the coverage in a timely fashion,” Mueller writes regarding Pickett for The Athletic. “He is advanced beyond the others, so timing and anticipation are obvious when watching him go through reads and progressions.
“… I actually think there is more pressure on [Matt] Canada to advance the versatility of this offense than there is on Pickett to execute it. I don’t see Pickett holding the Steelers back, and in fact, they can win because of him not despite him.”
Coming out of college, chances are high that Pickett would have been ranked well below the likes of Jones, Fields and Love if they were already in the same draft class. Heck, Pickett was largely ranked behind Ridder and Howell in the 2022 draft class at the position, too, yet he was the first quarterback off the board.
While he didn’t have any eye-opening traits at the position like a big arm or elite speed or insane off-platform throws like Love, Fields, Ridder or Howell, Pickett has the elite traits where it matters most: between the ears.
Pickett is very quick at processing, reads defenses very well pre-snap and knows where to go with the football quickly. He has high-level accuracy, too, which continues to show up on a number of throws, and the timing and anticipation are quite something to see with the second-year quarterback.
The pocket awareness and overall presence have improved, so far in a small sample size, too. Steelers Depot’s own Tyler Wise broke Pickett’s pocket presence and awareness down for the site on Wednesday. He came away feeling rather good about Pickett overall, writing: “While I’m basing my observations on a limited 17-rep window across two games, the evidence is compelling. Pickett appears to have undergone a mental reboot, casting aside his previous tendencies to hastily exit pockets. This newfound discipline and pocket poise hint at a promising trajectory for the young quarterback as he heads into Year Two.”
Things are really looking up for Pickett. A massive Year Two leap could becoming for the Steelers’ signal caller, which should help the Black and Gold leap back into true contention in the AFC once again. That leap will also put to rest any concerns about pick. For Mueller, that’s already happened with him ranking Pickett as the top quarterback out of that select group of young signal callers around the NFL.
