Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett has been a polarizing figure in the NFL this season. Many hoped and expected Pickett to make a notable jump in Year Two after getting thrown into the fire his rookie season. He showed us glimpses of what that could look like during the preseason when he posted a perfect passer rating and looked like a quarterback on the verge of a full-fledged breakout in 2023. Alas, that breakout has yet to come. Pickett has seemingly stayed the same or regressed in some areas of his game as a sophomore in the league, failing to go through his progressions at times along with ball placement being off, missing open receivers as well as scrambling early from clean pockets.
Head coach Mike Tomlin mentioned in his weekly press conference yesterday that he certainly needs to see more from Pickett regarding his play on a down-to-down basis, needing to be more consistent throughout a game rather than just getting hot at the right time. However, Tomlin also stated that Pickett is judged based off his wins and losses, suggesting that is the most important stat at the end of the day instead of passing yards and touchdowns.
Former Steelers CB Ike Taylor agrees with Tomlin, telling Mark Bergin on the Bleav In Steelers podcast that Pickett is the ideal quarterback you want leading your team.
“As a fan, as a scout, as a former player, I’m looking for someone like Kenny,” Taylor said on the podcast, which aired on Mark Bergin’s YouTube channel. “Kenny don’t come around too often in the fourth quarter. And the one thing that we do know about Kenny, if you need a drive late in the game, Kenny gonna wake up. And that’s hard to find.”
Pickett has developed into Captain Clutch of sorts for the Steelers, having six fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives since last season, including four game-winning drives in 2023. Pickett might be struggling throughout games, but he somehow finds a way to turn it on in the fourth quarter and lead a drive that gets the offense the score it needs to walk away with the win. The way Taylor sees it, he’s okay with Pickett needing to find his groove for three quarters in order to have that closer emerge in the fourth quarter.
“So, I’m cool for us having to wait on Kenny the first three quarters because I know that the defense gonna give ’em,” Taylor said. “If we can control the ball, control the clock, defense been playing the way they’ve been playing, I’m cool with that. I know in the fourth quarter if we need a drive, there’s nobody else I want but Kenny because he’s always coming in clutch.”
Waiting for Pickett to turn it on puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the Steelers to play nearly flawless until the final quarter. The running game must be on point, sustaining drives, and the defense must be stingy in getting opposing offenses off the field while generating turnovers and holding the opposition to field goals rather than touchdowns. That recipe has very room for error as we have seen this season. In blowout losses against the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans, Pickett couldn’t find traction early and the rest of the team struggled to keep the game close.
Still, Taylor has a point in saying that very few quarterbacks can be as effective at getting the job done in the fourth quarter like Pickett has shown he can do. In fact, Pickett has the second-highest PFF grade in the fourth quarter/overtime since the start of last season, his career grade behind only the GOAT: Tom Brady. That is who Taylor ends up comparing Pickett to, stating that both Brady and Pickett have that clutch gene that is rare to find and harder to replicate.
“For me, Kenny is the perfect fit for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Taylor said. “They can say what they wanna say about what a prototypical quarterbacks should look like and all the traits that they need to have. Man, give me that Tom Brady trait. And I’m not saying that Kenny is even close to Tom. I’m just saying a trait, and I know with three-and-a-half to two minutes left and the game is close, Kenny gonna close out the game, he’s gonna make that drive, and he’s gonna put some points on the board.”
Pickett is in no way in the same stratosphere of Brady, being that the seven-time Super Bowl champion and future first-ballot Hall of Famer should be considered the best player ever. However, Pickett has shown that trait to come up clutch in crucial moments late in games, something that Brady had a habit of doing during his prolific career. Pickett must show continued development as a more consistent passer to earn the right to be Pittsburgh’s franchise quarterback for the next decade, but his play in the crunch time gives him a valid argument for why he should be Pittsburgh’s guy for the future.
