After straddling the hot seat for over a year, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada finally burned up. Mike Tomlin announced on Tuesday that the team would be firing Canada after two-and-half seasons with the team.
Now, with the lightning rod for the Steelers’ offensive woes out of town, quarterback Kenny Pickett takes center stage. A real-life moment from The Ballad where James Franco confidently says, “first time?” to another man standing on death row.
However, according to former Steelers safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, Pickett isn’t cooked just yet.
“I don’t necessarily put him on the hot set, but it’s warm as hell,” said Clark on ESPN’s Friday episode of Get Up, “He’s trying to figure out can he be the franchise quarterback of this team. Can you make plays in quarters one, two and three and not always have to be counted on in the last five minutes of the game?”
As Clark alludes to, Pickett hasn’t been absolved of blame throughout this season. He has struggled mightily reading the field, throwing accurately and being on the same page as his receivers. While Canada’s offense lacked structure and fluidness, a case can be made that Pickett’s play is just as much to blame for the team’s offensive struggles.
Throughout the first 10 games this season, Pickett has thrown for just 1,722 yards, six touchdowns, four interceptions, while posting a 36.3 QBR. To give some perspective on how bad these numbers are, Pickett ranks above just three other quarterbacks in rating: Zach Wilson, Ryan Tannehill and Bryce Young. He also has just one more passing touchdown this season than Dallas Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland has interceptions returned for touchdowns.
Definitely not great, but let’s rewind the clock here for a second. It wasn’t long ago that we were talking about Pickett throwing the ball downfield, engineering game-winning drives, and leading a Pitt offense well enough to earn a spot as a Heisman Trophy finalist.
In his final year at Pitt, Pickett threw for over 4,000 yards and 42 touchdowns, while making the NCAA change a rule because of him. He was confident in himself, which is something he has sorely lacked this season under Canada. If the Steelers are going to have a chance this season, they need the brash young gunslinger who tried to get into a fight with Buffalo’s Shaq Lawson in his first NFL start.
Maybe receiving play calls from quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, the coach he’s worked most closely with, and preparing with the seemingly well-liked new offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner will ignite the flame in Pickett.
If not, he will be the next Steeler to flame out of Pittsburgh.
