Michael Lombardi did his best Jeff Hardy impression on Thursday, flying in from the top rope to criticize the woeful Pittsburgh Steelers offense.
On his VSiN show, The Lombardi Line Lombardi called the Steelers’ scheme, “very basic and generic.” Hardly a shocker as all of Pittsburgh chants for Mike Tomlin to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
However, the analyst didn’t stop at just taking shots at the play caller but also at starting quarterback Kenny Pickett.
“Are they good enough at quarterback?” said Lombardi. “I never thought that Pickett was going to be able to lead a team and that everything had to be good around him and everything is not good around him.”
Lombardi went on to say that Pickett is a difficult player to evaluate due to the circumstances surrounding him, such as poor offensive line play and the aforementioned scheming.
For as much flak as Canada has received over the past few weeks, the second-year signal caller does deserve his fair share of blame. He has sputtered out of the gates this season throwing for just over 1,000 yards with a five-four touchdown to interception ratio. Perhaps the most jarring stat is his completion percentage, which sits at a mere 59.7%.
As a player with a reputation of being an accurate, intermediate thrower, it has been shocking to see the 25-year-old take a step back in this department, despite having one of the better preseasons in recent memory.
Additionally, his pocket management has still been a struggle, leading to several sacks.
It hasn’t been all doom and gloom for the former Pitt Panther though, having just enjoyed a solid showing against the Baltimore Ravens, highlighted by a game-winning touchdown strike to wide receiver George Pickens.
More notably, the quarterback is limiting mistakes by not throwing any interceptions in his past two games and allowing the defense to set the tone of the game.
Is this improved play a sign of things to come, or is Lombardi right and is it time for the Steelers to panic? Only time will tell.
