Matt Canada’s firing isn’t the cure-all to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ problems. That’s the view of former NFL QB J.T. O’Sullivan, who has definitely been no fan of Canada throughout his Steelers tenure. But after reviewing QB Kenny Pickett’s performance against the Cleveland Browns last Sunday, O’Sullivan sees the issues rooted deeper than the Steelers’ playcaller.
In his latest breakdown for the QB School, O’Sullivan talks through Pickett’s outing. Throughout the video, he discusses the too-basic concepts the team runs but also highlights Pickett’s struggles and the overall miscommunication between him and his wide receivers.
“Kenny Pickett looks confused,” O’Sullivan said after one play. “The quarterback looks confused.”
Later, he went over a missed touchdown to WR Diontae Johnson on an over/crossing route that would’ve given the Steelers the lead. Though there was some pressure, there was also enough time for Pickett to get this pass off for a walk-in score. It comes one week after he missed Johnson for a would-be touchdown against the Green Bay Packers, throwing underneath and incomplete to RB Jaylen Warren instead.
“Kenny Pickett either can’t or refuses to see it,” O’Sullivan said. “Or they’re asking [him] to look at the wrong thing…he’s just struggling to see the field.”
Overall, while O’Sullivan is fine with the Steelers making a coordinator change in the hopes it’ll spark something with the offense, the layers of issues might be too numerous to fix over the next seven weeks.
“Man, I don’t know what the fix is. Because I don’t think it was just the scheme,” he said. “And I think the scheme was a problem. But I don’t think Kenny Pickett is playing that well. I think there’s a significant lack of detail of what they’re doing and executing on the perimeter as far as being on the same page.”
Sunday will be Pickett’s first game under the new offensive coordinator regime of Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan. And I’m sure, good or bad, O’Sullivan will be taking a look at how different things look under them. But regardless of schematic changes, Pickett has to hit what’s there before anything else matters.
Check out the full breakdown below.
