Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett hasn’t had the season many expected in his second year in the league. He’s struggled over the last few games, and he hit a low in Week 10 against the Cleveland Browns, throwing for just 106 yards in a 13-10 loss. That performance against Cleveland has Pickett as the favorite to be the next quarterback benched, coming in at +200 via sportsbetting.ag.
Chris Adamski of TribLive posted a picture of the odds on Twitter.
At +200, Pickett is the favorite, edging out Las Vegas Raiders QB Aidan O’Connell at +300 and Tennessee Titans QB Will Levis at +400. The fact that Pickett has two established backups behind him in Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph likely helps, although the Titans and Raiders also have veteran backups in Ryan Tannehill and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Pickett’s performance this season has been underwhelming, to say the least. If he can’t turn his season around after the team fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, the Steelers could turn to a backup to provide a spark to an offense that has been stagnant. Pickett’s regressed as the season has gone on, and he’s yet to string a full four quarters of good play together. While the Steelers are 6-4 and currently in the thick of the playoff race, it hasn’t been due to quarterback play. Pickett has found some magic in the fourth quarter, leading three game-winning drives, but his performance in quarters 1-3 has left a lot to be desired.
It’s not as if he’s always turned it on in the fourth quarter either, as he had a chance to lead another game-winning drive with under two minutes left against Cleveland and instead threw three straight incompletions, allowing rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson to lead Cleveland to the win at the end of regulation.
While the Steelers aren’t going to turn to Trubisky this week, Pickett is going to have to prove that he can be better and that Canada was the problem rather than him. The Steelers have too much talent on offense to struggle the way that they have this season, and Pickett has been a major part of the problem.
We’ll see if the Steelers ultimately turn to Trubisky or Rudolph, but Trubisky’s performance filling in for Pickett after he was injured against the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars hasn’t inspired a ton of confidence, either. It would be a bit of a shock if the Steelers end up benching their second-year quarterback, especially after the way Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin talked about him during his press conference today. But with the team still in contention, anything is possible if they’re really looking to turn their offense around if Pickett continues to struggle.
