Despite the Green Bay Packers being down two of their top cornerbacks in Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes and missing a starting safety in Darnell Savage, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ passing attack was pitiful yesterday. Led by QB Kenny Pickett, who threw for just 126 yards, the Steelers were not a threat through the air. On the KDKA Nightly Sports Call, former Steelers DT Chris Hoke said he doesn’t think Pickett is going through his progressions.
“I just think at times the game’s still moving very fast for him. At some point, you’ve got to believe that it will slow down. I don’t believe he’s going through his progressions. He has to be able to go through his progressions and work through them. He’s getting better protection now. Before, it was the complaint he’s not being protected. He is getting protection now. He has got to stand, he’s got to trust that, he’s got to drive the ball and go one, two, three. Work through the progressions and I think he’ll do better. It really was a contrast today. We saw a young starting quarterback in Jordan Love doing that,” Hoke said after the Steelers’ 23-19 win.
It’s an issue that after 21 starts, Pickett still hasn’t felt the game slow down for him if that’s the case. There were a few throws yesterday where it didn’t seem like he even looked beyond his first read, with one coming on 3rd and 3 with 1:13 left in the third quarter where Pickett was called out on the broadcast for telegraphing this throw to RB Jaylen Warren.
From the looks of it, it seems like Pickett had his mind set on hitting Warren out in the flat and didn’t even pay attention to the charging De’Vondre Campbell in coverage. With Pittsburgh in field goal range, that play could’ve ended in disaster for the Steelers.
Take away all the fourth-quarter heroics with Pickett and he simply hasn’t been all that impressive. The fourth-quarter comebacks and clutch genes are a part of his NFL story thus far, so I’m not discounting them, but it’s not sustainable for Pittsburgh to win when Pickett can barely reach 100 passing yards against a banged-up secondary.
As Hoke said, you have to think that the game will slow down for Pickett eventually, and at some point soon. But we’re 21 games in and it hasn’t happened yet. While the comparison to Love is a little bit of a stretch since Love has two more years of experience working against NFL defenses, even if it’s just come in practice, he was a lot better than Pickett was on Sunday.
At some point, it’s fair to ask if the game will slow down for Pickett and if he can ever establish himself as a top-half starting quarterback in the league. Winning matters, and Pickett’s won. But we’ll see if Pittsburgh can take care of business and win against the Cleveland Browns and/or the Cincinnati Bengals the next two weeks. Pickett needs to play better if the Steelers want to have a chance.
