Kenny Pickett was a rookie last season, meaning that the got the rookie treatment you would expect from a quarterback starting his first games in the NFL. This led to a simplified offensive system to help bring Pickett along rather than trying to have him run the show right away. However, this approach led to Pittsburgh having a pretty stagnant offense when it came to creativity and making adjustments pre-snap. TE Pat Freiermuth mentioned that Pittsburgh didn’t have any hot routes built in last season while OC Matt Canada stated during the season that the Steelers have always had checks in their system based on the situation.
Pickett has talked about how he feels more comfortable making audible calls in training camp, and speaking with Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Pickett mentioned that he is in a far better place this season in terms of having more autonomy at the line of scrimmage now that he has a better grasp of the offense.
“We’re really getting into that now in camp,” Pickett said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Something we didn’t do a lot of last year, especially I’m just learning so much and I was just getting the alerts and the kills and all those checks down. But now the fact that I have a really good ownership on that now. If I see certain pressures, you know, giving signals and changing plays at the line of scrimmage to get us in the best play necessary for us to succeed. I’m happy that we’re starting to get into that now.”
It’s hard to expect a rookie quarterback to come in from the college game and be able to handle all the operations at the line of scrimmage from Day One. While Pickett was often considered the most pro-ready quarterback in his draft class, there still was a learning curve to overcome transitioning from Pitt to the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, Pickett showed strides at the end of last season and has displayed a better command of the offense during the offseason as well as in training camp.
This progression by Pickett has led to him having more control of the offense, a dynamic that he and Canada have been discussing on a regular basis to give Pickett more of the reins of the offense heading into 2023.
“I think I’m gonna have even more control than I had last year now of having that say of what I like most,” Pickett said. “And Coach Canada’s awesome with that. We meet every week, twice a week, and early in the week on the play sheet and then at the end of the week to finalize it where I’m ranking the plays and how comfortable I am and the confidence I have in each play, whether it’s scheme, whether it’s guys and matchups. So, it’s been great so far.”
It truly appears that the Steelers are prepared to take the training wheels off Pickett as he has adjusted to the speed of the NFL game and all the tasks for which he is responsible. He may not be at Ben Roethlisberger’s level yet in terms of having full autonomy and instances where we saw “Ben be Ben.” But the offense should be able to flow much easier in 2023 with Pickett continually improving as that field general Pittsburgh needs him to be.
