It’s no secret that second-year Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett isn’t playing that well. He threw for just 126 yards against a depleted Green Bay Packers secondary, stared down receivers and really just looked unsure of himself.
Yet, despite the woeful showing against the Packers, Pickett still hasn’t thrown an interception in 147 consecutive passing attempts and counting, which is the longest active streak in the NFL.. On top of that, Pickett has just four total turnovers on the season, marking the only qualified quarterback in the NFL of 33 who has under five turnovers on the year.
He’s not turning the football over, which is allowing the Steelers to continue to sustain drives and end them in kicks, whether that’s a punt, field goal or extra point.
However, even with all the praise that Pickett is getting for not turning the football over, he’s not doing much in general to truly help the Steelers, either. According to Pro Football Focus’ Brad Spielberger, while Pickett is not turning it over and isn’t making many turnover-worthy plays, he’s not doing much to push the Steelers in the direction of the win column either.
Appearing on the 93.7 The Fan Morning Show Tuesday with co-hosts Adam Crowley and Dorin Dickerson, Spielberger downplayed the significance of Pickett’s ball security so far, even if the numbers are strong from PFF’s perspective.
“It does help you. You do wanna protect the football. And it’s also not just that he is not turning it over, he also does not have many turnover-worthy plays. …Of all the stats we have…I think turnover-worthy plays is one of the better things we do. It is extremely predictive and it’s an important thing to monitor. And he is not doing that either, right? So, yes, it helps no question about it,” Spielberger said regarding Pickett and his ball security. “But I don’t know. You have 150 passing yards against the Green Bay Packers, without [cornerback] Jaire Alexander, like, is that a factor in winning the game? Not really.
“They ran the ball extremely efficiently. They played good defense. They had timely turnovers when they needed ’em. I’m not trying to totally rag on the guy, but really he has not done much that pushes them towards the win column.”
The immediate, understandable pushback on that from Spielberger would be the three fourth-quarter comebacks and three game-winning drive that the young quarterback has put together this season. In fact, he has six fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives in just 22 career games.
Pickett makes plays late to help the Steelers win, that much is certain. He’s not turning the football over, too, but the concern is that he’s simply not making plays until late in games, missing throws early, which plays a key factor in the Steelers’ offense staying largely stuck in the mud throughout early portions of the game.
It’s really no surprise that Pickett isn’t turning the ball over, though. It’s what the Steelers want. What Pittsburgh wants out of him is to protect the ball and be as efficient as possible in the passing game, providing some to a run game that is starting to take off, along with a defense that takes the ball away at a league-best clip.
On the season, Pickett has a turnover-worthy play rate of just 2.3%, making just seven turnover-worthy plays on the season. Among qualified quarterbacks in the NFL, Pickett is tied for sixth-best in TWP% on the season with Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, who is out for the year. New York’s Tyrod Taylor has the lowest TWP% of the season at just 1.6%.
Not turning the ball over is great, especially for a young quarterback. After a rough start to his career last season, Pickett turned it around in the second half and has continued that this season. But even with taking care of the football, Pickett hasn’t exactly taken that next step many expected him to in Year Two.
That’s rather concerning overall, which is a major talking point with Pickett right now, regardless of ball security.
