After watching Kenny Pickett play at the University of Pittsburgh for five seasons, helping lead the Panthers to one of their most successful seasons ever, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi believes Pickett will have the same long-term impact on the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In a recent episode on Next Up with Adam Breneman, Narduzzi is fully confident Pickett will bring home a seventh Lombardi trophy to Pittsburgh.
“He’s a natural leader and he’ll lead the Steelers just like he led the Panthers to a championship,” Narduzzi told Breneman. “He’ll lead them to a Super Bowl. I have no questions about it. There’s not a whole lot people don’t know about Kenny, but he’s just a guy that everybody wants to play for. You wanna coach him and you wanna play for Kenny Pickett.”
Opting to stay for the 2021 season instead of declaring for the draft, Pickett broke out in his final year with the Panthers. After never throwing for more than 13 touchdowns in a season, he tossed 42 of them in 2021, boosting his completion percentage by six points while throwing just seven interceptions. The Panthers finished 11-3, easily winning the ACC Coastal Division, and won the ACC title game in convincing fashion, blowing out Wake Forest 45-21. That night, Pickett became known for his “fake slide” that was quickly made illegal. The only blemish on the team’s season was losing in their bowl game but Pickett did not participate in it, choosing to prepare for the draft instead.
It was the school’s first 11-win season Dan Marino led the Panthers to such a feat in 1981. Pickett turned his breakout year into becoming the first quarterback selected in the 2022 NFL Draft, staying local with the Steelers taking him 20th overall. After a bumpy start to his NFL career, Pickett and Pittsburgh showed improvement down the stretch and are looking to build upon it in 2023.
While Narduzzi is supremely confident, the path to a Super Bowl obviously won’t be easy. The AFC is littered with fantastic quarterback play. Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City, Josh Allen in Buffalo, and of course, the AFC North has three other first-rounders in Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, and Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson. Perhaps one day Pittsburgh will make a Super Bowl push. For now, their focus will be on getting back to the playoffs, something they missed out on last season, and winning a postseason game, which hasn’t occurred since 2016.
Check out the whole conversation below.
