Pittsburgh Steelers second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett was the talk of the offseason from a national media perspective when it came to second-year signal callers breaking out.
Pickett closed his rookie season in impressive fashion with some great come-from-behind wins, and then put together a great training camp and a dominant preseason, generating a perfect passer rating in five drives, all five of which ended in touchdowns for the Steelers.
Then, the regular season started.
Through two weeks, Pickett has been one of the worst quarterbacks in football. He’s missed a number of layup-like throws that NFL quarterbacks should make in their sleep, has put the ball in harm’s way far too often, and is under a ton of pressure behind a struggling offensive line. He even did something that hadn’t been done by a Steelers quarterback since Kent Graham in the 2000 season. Completing just 15-of-30 passes in Week Two on Monday Night Football against the Browns, Pickett generated the worst completion percentage by a Steelers quarterback with at least 30 attempts in a win since Graham.
Not great!
Good news is, Pickett has a chance to bounce back in a big way on Sunday Night Football on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week Three. Good Morning Football host Peter Schrager, who picked Pickett as his No. 1 breakout player in the 2023 season, remains a believer in the young quarterback, but wants to see something — and quickly — in a great matchup against a porous Raiders defense.
“I need something in Vegas this weekend, dude. This is Kenny Pickett, like, we gotta get going, dude!” Schrager said while picking Pickett in a segment for GMFB highlighting which players the hosts think will have big games in Week Three. “It’s now Game Three, Vegas gave up a ton of yards to a lot of players over there in Buffalo last week. I know it’s the home-opener for Vegas and the Raiders might be going [on a run], but Kenny Pickett, you couldn’t have scheduled a better defensive opponent after what they gave up to get yourself going.
“It has not been a good start. I picked him as my number one breakout player in the league and that has not been the case, but Kenny Pickett, I’ve still got your back. Let’s get [George] Pickens the rock, let’s put up some yards and get an easy victory and not struggle late in Vegas.”
Through the first two weeks Pickett has thrown for just 454 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions, completing just 60.5% of his passes with a quarterback rating of just 69.7. In the first two games, Pickett has four turnover-worthy plays and a percentage of turnover-worthy plays sitting at 4.7, according to Pro Football Focus.
Last season as a rookie, Pickett had just 12 total turnover-worthy plays in 13 games and a percentage of just 2.5%. He’s regressed a bit early in the season, but Week Three is a promising matchup for the second-year signal caller to get right.
Las Vegas has allowed just 433 passing yards through two games, but quarterbacks have five touchdowns to no interceptions in the first two games. The five touchdowns allowed are the second most in the NFL through two weeks. Additionally, Las Vegas has allowed a completion percentage of 81.7 through the first two weeks to Denver’s Russell Wilson and Buffalo’s Josh Allen and has sacked the quarterback just four times.
Las Vegas has a handful of new faces in the secondary in veteran cornerback Marcus Peters, safety Marcus Epps and rookie cornerback Jakorian Bennett. Teams have had success throwing against them in the first two weeks, as well as in the run game. The Raiders are allowing 4.9 yards per carry and have given up 277 yards on the ground in the first two games.
After dealing with the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns in the first two weeks of these season, Pittsburgh’s offense gets a favorable matchup against the Raiders on Sunday Night Football. It’s a big opportunity for not only Pickett but the Steelers offense in general, to get going and start to fulfill some of the promise both showed in the preseason.
