QB Kenny Pickett and the first-team offense haven’t missed a beat yet this preseason, scoring three touchdowns on three offensive drives. They’ve only have 17 plays from scrimmage as unit, but the starters have looked sharp, showing chemistry in the passing game as well as the ability to generate splash at a much better rate than they did last season.
One of those splash plays was the 25-yard TD pass from Pickett to TE Pat Freiermuth last Saturday against the Buffalo Bills. Bryant McFadden and CB Patrick Peterson talked about the play on the most recent edition of the All Things Covered podcast with McFadden calling Pickett’s touchdown toss a “big-league throw” in tight coverage.
“Yes, a hundred percent,” Peterson responded to McFadden on the All Things Covered podcast, which aired on the show’s YouTube Channel. “When I saw it on tape this morning, I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s great ball placement’ because he put it only where his guy can make a catch on it. He put it right behind the middle runner’s ear to where the safeties, both high safeties, wasn’t able to converge on Pat and make a collision to try to draw that ball loose. I mean, that was just unbelievable. He’s playing with a ton of confidence that you need as a quarterback. And like we talked about last episode he’s playing with that confidence that he left off with last year.”
As Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot laid out in a film room breakdown of the Pickett-to-Freiermuth touchdown, Pickett executes the play perfectly against Buffalo’s Cover 2 look. The LB Matt Milano (No. 58) carries Freiermuth down the seam and Pickett throws to the outside and back shoulder of Freiermuth to keep the ball away from Milano. He displays great ball placement, keeping the ball away from the linebacker while fitting it into the hole between the two safeties down the middle of the field. Freiermuth does the rest, finishing in the end zone for the score.
Pickett displayed instances of this surgical accuracy last season like on his throw down the middle of the field to WR Steven Sims against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 17, putting the pass on a rope to his intended target, who was surrounded by defenders. You can tell that Pickett is not only carrying that confidence his displayed at the end of last season into this season, but that he also has improved his timing and anticipation to place more accurate passes on his intended receivers more consistently.
These are the steps that we needed Pickett to demonstrate to prove that he can be Pittsburgh’s franchise quarterback. With one preseason game left before the regular season commences, it appears that the training wheels have been taken off and that Pickett is ready for that Year-Two jump.
“He got the keys,” Peterson said of Pickett. “He could put the gas in the car when he want. He can change the oil when he want.”
