In his first 22 NFL starts, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett has been far too inconsistent.
At times, Pickett looks like that franchise quarterback the Steelers were aiming for when they selected him 20th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. But more often than not he’s looked like a backup-level quarterback, missing some open looks, struggling with accuracy, falling apart in the pocket from an awareness standpoint, and seemingly playing a bit scared overall.
Some of the issues might be tied to the offensive scheme he has been in that last year-and-a-half under offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who was fired Tuesday. Now, running backs coach Eddie Faulkner and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan are in charge of the offense, which could give the Steelers a bit of a boost, especially Pickett.
For NFL analyst Greg Cosell, the change at offensive coordinator was needed as the passing game had regressed, making things rather difficult from a route concept and design standpoint. But he didn’t give Pickett a pass, either, stating the second-year man has a lot he needs to fulfill the potential Cosell saw in him coming out of Pitt.
“It was really not a very good pass game, in terms of the concepts, in terms of giving Kenny Pickett answers. They didn’t really have a lot of great route combinations, the spacing wasn’t very good. There were a lot of things that made this a difficult pass game to execute for a quarterback. I’m not sure what Kenny Pickett is right now,” Cosell said Thursday during an appearance on the Ross Tucker Podcast. “I really liked him coming out. I think he can be a quality quarterback. Obviously, it’s easy to put blame on him. There are some things he needs to get much better at to be a solid NFL starter. But we’ll see with this pass game now, if it just expands a little bit, and gives him better opportunities to throw to his primary reads, define the reads and the throws better so that the ball can come out on time.
“That was a big struggle for them. Some of that was on Pickett, some of that was on the fact that the throws and the concepts were just not there and not clean.”
Coswell is one of the smartest analysts out there, and he nails it with the Steelers’ passing game. There were far too many issues in regard to the concepts and the overall spacing that the Steelers utilized under Canada. Rarely did the Steelers target the middle of the field, instead focusing on throwing outside of the numbers and playing safe with the football.
Though the offense won’t change all that much with Canada out of the picture, at least down the stretch in 2023, Pickett has a chance to turn things around and start showing the promise that many want to see from him. Cosell still believes in Pickett as a solid NFL quarterback, but he has to improve in key areas, including accuracy, decision-making and more.
That decision-making could improve with the change at offensive coordinator. Hopefully, Sullivan and Faulkner start to build things around Pickett’s strength week by week, putting him in advantageous positions to attack opposing defenses.
