As we move into week three of the NFL season, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett has provided more questions than answers. After his strong finish to last season, many Steelers fans and NFL analysts had high expectations for him in year two.
So far, he hasn’t exactly lived up to those. And some are using his early season performance as a reason to give up on him already.
Analyst Craig Carton is one of those people, and he talked during The Carton Show about how Pickett is a “bad quarterback”. But who else but former Steeler Willie Colon came to Pickett’s defense.
“Kenny Pickett played better in the second half last season so you gotta give him time.” Colon argued. “Josh Allen didn’t make his jump until year three. I don’t think he’s a bad quarterback. I think he’s a quarterback who needs time to develop and he’s figuring it out as he goes. And every ballplayer in the NFL deserves that grace.”
The Steelers stand 1-1 through the first two weeks, and if you showed me Pickett’s stat line for the first two games before the season I would have said that 1-1 was a pretty darn good result. He’s seen his numbers fall across the board, and even his ball control, which was almost perfect down the stretch last year has been a disappointment, as he has already thrown three interceptions.
So the question looms larger and larger each bad week he has: is Pickett the answer? Colon certainly thinks it’s too early to tell, and for good reason. One positive thing to take out of Monday night was how explosive the defense looked. It’s not only the type of defense that can make stops, but also one that can turnover the other team and create huge momentum swings. For how strong that defense is, it doesn’t seem like Pickett needs to be a world-beater to lead the team to victories.
And sure, he hasn’t exactly been a world-beater yet, but he’s not even a full season’s worth of starts into his career. When you invest in a first-round pick into a guy like Pickett, you are hoping that he can develop enough on his rookie contract so that you can spend elsewhere and build a contender around him. The Steelers didn’t take Pickett expecting him to win them games by himself. They took him so he would give them the flexibility to build a winning roster. And it seems like they’ve done that, at least to an extent.
If Pickett plays like this all year, then his leash is certainly going to run a little short in the 2024 offseason. But let’s at least give the man some “grace” as Colon said, before we write him off.
