In the first two weeks of the season Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett has seemingly regressed in a number of areas of the game.
From being able to read the field pre-snap to his overall accuracy and decision-making, Pickett is seemingly in a bad spot right now as the Steelers sit at 1-1 and are preparing to take a trip to Las Vegas for a Sunday Night Football matchup against the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium.
The accuracy issues are puzzling from Pickett considering pinpoint passing was a real strength of his coming out of the University of Pittsburgh and showed itself time and time again in his rookie season.
For former Steelers quarterback turned analyst Charlie Batch, Pickett’s struggles really boil down to something quite simple, at least right now: he’s trying to be too perfect for a struggling offense.
Appearing on 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show Wednesday, Batch stated that Pickett is really pressing, causing him to make uncharacteristic mistakes.
“The quarterback and coordinator are always gonna be tied to the hip and it starts with the coordinator. And right now the packages and the personnel groups that he’s putting on his field is really questionable right now because the defenses aren’t respecting anything that he’s doing at this particular point,” Batch said on the 102.5 WDVE Morning Shown, according to audio via iHeart Radio. “And it just seems to me that Kenny Pickett is trying to be too perfect because you have to, because there’s no flexibility at the line of scrimmage for him to do other things elsewhere.
“And I think that’s something that’s very frustrating when you watch this.”
That checks out because some of the issues in the first two weeks are things we’ve never seen from Pickett. Bad decision-making, putting the ball in harm’s way in unnecessary fashion, missing layup-like throws that he should be making in his sleep at this point.
Those issues come down to confidence and pressure. Right now, Pickett’s confidence is seemingly at an all-time low in the NFL. He’s not trusting his eyes, not trusting his ability and not leaning in on the work he’s put in throughout the offseason at the position.
Though Canada has stated in recent days that Pickett has a lot of freedom at the line of scrimmage to get the Steelers into the right situations, that doesn’t feel all that accurate when looking at the film. Rarely is Pickett checking out of something, adjusting the protections or making general adjustments, at least in the first two games of the season.
So, as Batch theorizes, he’s trying to be too perfect within the play called, letting the pressure of being great on every play get to him. That is causing some of the mental blocks and accuracy issues that are quite concerning.
It’s not just about trying to be too perfect either, according to Batch. Not having much confidence in the pass protection is affecting Pickett as well, as is the lack of a running game.
“It would be [fixable] if you would always be able to hand turn around and hand the football off to the back and say, ‘Okay, get me some yardage.’ You can get me into those manageable second- and third-down situations where you’re ahead to chains right now, but he can’t do that,” Batch said regarding the struggles of the run game and trying to take pressure off of Pickett. “And now all of a sudden when you’re sitting there facing second and 10 because you know you can’t hand that football off, it becomes frustrating. So what defenses are doing right now, they are trying to hit him early to get him off of his spot, get him flustered, and then forces him to now go from reading the defense down the field to now looking at the protection and then trying to get his eyes down the field.
“If you do that, you’re already at a loss at that particular point. So Kenny, he just has to continue to try to gain that confidence and trust that that offensive line is gonna protect him.”
That’s easier said than done, which Batch knows. Through two weeks, Pickett is playing behind arguably the worst offensive line in football from both a pass protection and run game standpoint.
Pittsburgh has just 96 yet rushing yards on 31 carries in the first two weeks with 65 of those yards coming on three Najee Harris explosive runs.
Outside of the run game struggles, the offensive line isn’t protecting Pickett all that well. The Steelers have allowed 35 pressures so far, the worst pressure rate in football at 48%. They have also allowed the third-most quarterback hits at 11, the most hurries in the NFL with 17 and the fifth-most sacks in football at seven.
If there’s no confidence in the protection in front of him, which is causing him to rush throws and drop his eyes to watch the pass rush, it’s understandable from Pickett’s perspective, especially after suffering two concussions last season.
Everyone offensively needs to be better, that much is clear. It’s not just an execution problem, it’s a schematic issue as well from a tendency standpoint. It needs corrected, and in a hurry. How that happens is anyone’s guess, but until it does all eyes will be on Pickett, right or wrong.
