Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hit on his thoughts on the 2023 Steelers in the latest episode of his Footbahlin’ podcast, and he thinks Kenny Pickett is the key to the team’s success.
“The key’s gonna be Kenny Pickett. And I say that because this is year two. You can come out in year one, and this is for George Pickens as well, you can come out in the first year and kind of surprise people. I’ve seen a lot of quarterbacks do it,” Roethlisberger said. “They have to do it for three years before I tell you how good they’re gonna be. Because anyone can surprise someone after year one, maybe even year two, but there’s no surprising people in year three and year four.”
Roethlisberger said one particular skill defensive coordinators can hone in on is Pickett’s running ability, and he’ll have to adapt to coaches scheming more against him.
Pickett only has 12 starts under his belt, so there is still some unknown. But coaches are obviously going to plan to scheme against him and take advantage of what they know, but Pickett’s also worked a lot on the mental side of his game. Going up against Pittsburgh’s disguised coverages in practice is something that he thinks makes him a better player, and he’s going to be able to read and react against defenses better in his second season.
Pickett is still going to be a key to Pittsburgh’s success, but it’s not as if teams didn’t have a relative idea of his strengths and weaknesses towards the end of last season. As he plays more, there’s going to be more film on him but he’s also getting better each week as he gets more comfortable with Pittsburgh’s offense.
Obviously, we’ll know more about Pickett and what sort of quarterback he can be the more he plays. But given the work he’s put in this offseason on both the physical and mental side of things, a team game-planning against him isn’t really more of a concern now than it was when he was a rookie.
With added weapons on offense and an improved offensive line plus his own development, Pickett’s in line to take a leap in his second year. With Pittsburgh’s defense looking to be solid once again, Pickett’s play is a key to see how far this team can go. But they’ll have a stout run game and I’m not too worried about Pickett not developing as he should. With the talent on their roster, Pittsburgh should compete for the postseason.
