This was supposed to be the leap. The sophomore jump. The emergence of Kenny Pickett and this Pittsburgh Steelers offense. Vaulting themselves into the spotlight. And sure, maybe expectations were a bit too high and too reliant on summer success.
But this isn’t a leap. This isn’t a jump. If anything, Pickett is falling backwards, not springing forward.
If there’s any solace, it’s only two games. Pittsburgh’s come out on top in one of those. And they’ve faced two stingy defenses with essentially no running game. Circumstances far ideal for any quarterback. But the things that made Pickett impressive even in the back half of his rookie year aren’t evident on tape. He’s not reading the field well, certainly not taking good care of the football, and there aren’t many high-level plays.
It’s hard to explain what’s going on. We’re not even talking about steps in the right direction, building blocks upon last season. His play is just sloppy. A poor read was picked off by Browns’ safety Grant Delpit on the Steelers’ opening drive last night, baited into thinking it was man coverage when Cleveland dropped into zone. But it wasn’t even his worst mistake of the night. To open up the second half, Pickett was nearly intercepted on what should’ve been an obvious throwaway. Instead, he tried to force the ball to a completely covered Najee Harris and the pass should’ve been picked by S Rodney McLeod Jr., only bailed out by a drop.
Pickett finished the day 15-of-30 for 222 yards, one touchdown, and one pick. It was the worst completion percentage of a Steelers quarterback with at least 30 attempts in a win since Kent Graham in 2000. Things aren’t going well if you’re getting Kent Graham comparisons.
Through two games, and I know that’s still just a snapshot of a season, his yards-per-attempt, passing-success rate, completion percentage, interception rate, adjusted net yards per passing attempt, and sack rate are all worse than a season ago.
Pickett has looked flustered. He’s looked uneasy. And he’s shown total tunnel vision instead of being the accurate field-scanner he was billed to be coming out of college and trending towards after a predictably bumpy start to his rookie year. His accuracy has taken a nosedive, missing easy throws over the middle. Last week, it was a slant to WR Diontae Johnson. This week, it was over the middle to WR George Pickens. Maybe Pickens deserves some blame for slightly slowing up here, but this is “routine stuff routinely” Mike Tomlin always harps on. And hardly the only example of a miss.
Maybe the lack of a running game is hurting him that much. Teams certainly have a game plan already on the Steelers. Eight-man fronts, stop the run, take away the deep ball, and task Pickett with slowly matriculating the ball downfield. That was the 49ers’ game plan and in essence, that was the Browns’, though their approach was a little more aggressive at the line. Still, Pittsburgh hasn’t hit a true vertical shot in its first two games, Pickens’ 71-yard touchdown coming on a slant over the middle against surprisingly loose coverage.
On paper, things look easier against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week Three, though West Coast road games coming off a short week present an intangible challenge that must be considered. But some point – soon – Pickett has to show he has that leap in him. To show a spark of it. There’s plenty of blame to go around, offensive line, play calling, etc., but everything starts with the quarterback. Everything starts with Pickett. And I’m worried.
