In a matchup of two young quarterbacks with high expectations entering the 2023 season, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence certainly looked like the real deal in a 20-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium in poor weather, while Steelers’ quarterback Kenny Pickett struggled before exiting the game with a rib injury.
Those struggles and the lack of production overall has talking heads vocally raising their concerns once again. That includes FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd and “3 And Out” podcast host John Middlekauff. The pair appeared on the latest “3 And Out” podcast Monday morning reacting to Week Eight action in the NFL, and the conversation unsurprisingly turned to the Steelers and Pickett.
For Cowherd, who flip-flops on the Steelers and Pickett time and time again, it was more of the same on Monday. The long-time radio host stated that the Steelers are going to talk themselves into Pickett being the guy in the Steel City, but that they’ll never be able to do anything at the end of seasons because he’s just not good enough to be in that upper echelon of AFC quarterbacks.
“He makes just enough late-game throws. He’s got better receivers. They’re gonna talk themselves into a Kenny Pickett for six years and he’s not gonna do anything at the end of seasons,” Cowherd said of Pickett and Pittsburgh, according to video via The Volume’s YouTube page. “Smaller hands, doesn’t have a big arm, cold-weather city, but he’s good enough that they’ll keep him. …So today you ask most fans, they think, ‘I like where Pittsburgh is.’ But, you can’t win conference championships with Kenny Pickett in the AFC. Kenny Pickett in the NFC with that defense? Maybe he’s got a shot.
“So as I’m watching Pittsburgh today, again, they do so many things well. They’re just all on defense.”
One week earlier on the road against the Los Angeles Rams, Pickett and the Steelers’ offense came alive in the fourth quarter, putting together an impressive three drives, scoring two touchdowns and coming back from a 17-10 deficit to win 24-17. That had the Steelers feeling good heading into a three-week homestand starting with the Jaguars Sunday.
The weather didn’t make it easy, and neither did a big drop on the first play of the game from wide receiver Diontae Johnson. After that though, Pickett simply wasn’t good enough to keep pace with Lawrence. Pickett missed some throws, was slow to process at times and really just had the offense stuck in neutral, especially without a consistent run game.
Meanwhile, Lawrence answered a lot of questions and had a very solid game overall, throwing for 292 yards in the rain, including a 56-yard touchdown to running back Travis Etienne.
When the Steelers needed throws to made, Pickett couldn’t do it. The miss to Johnson in the end zone on third down on the Steelers’ first scoring drive is the biggest example of that from Sunday’s loss. It has Middlekauff believing the Steelers won’t make the playoffs in the tough AFC due to their play from the most important position in sports.
“A 10-win team. And that’s really the Steelers’ mindset for drafting Kenny Pickett at 20, just to be a serviceable guy. And every once in a while you see it like last week, right? When he made those plays against the Rams. Now you’re looking back, you’re like, ‘how good, really, was that?’ And then you’re watching him against a playoff team, and you weren’t seeing it early before he got hurt,” Middlekauff stated, according to video via The Volume’s YouTube page. “And now you go, ‘This is probably the reason that you’re not gonna make the playoffs is cause of your quarterback play.'”
In comparison to the top guys in the AFC like the Lamar Jacksons, the Joe Burrows, the Patrick Mahomeses and Tua Tagovailoas, not to mention a guy like Trevor Lawrence, Pickett just isn’t anywhere close to being in the same conversation from a talent perspective and definitely isn’t there from a production standpoint.
The Steelers have a good enough defense to compete in the AFC and maybe even shake things up in the playoffs and win a game or two, but the offense — especially the quarterback — just doesn’t breed that confidence. Too often, the offense is slow out of the blocks, and it’s rather concerning seeing Pickett struggling to process at times and then missing layup throws that most NFL quarterbacks are making with ease.
That’s where Pittsburgh is offensively right now. That’s where they have been since early in the season. It hasn’t gotten much better, and quite honestly, it might not anytime soon — if ever.
