The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Will Kenny Pickett miss the rest of the season?
According to reports, QB Kenny Pickett is slated to have surgey today on the ankle that he injured—or re-injured—in the second quarter of yesterday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Initial timelines indicate a potential two-to-four-week return window, but with the caveat that the team will not know the full extent of the injury until the procedure is done.
In other words, it could be longer than just four games. and there are five games left, so if it goes anywhere beyond that, Pickett will be missing the remainder of the season. As it is, there is rather a good chance that he will miss at least most of it, after largely remaining healthy throughout the year.
If Pickett has indeed played his last down of the 2023 season, then he will finish with a 7-5 record, though two of those losses include the two games in which he was unable to play the second half, which is obviously notable.
He has completed 201 of 324 pass attempts (62.0 percent) with just six touchdown passes (1.85 percent) and four interceptions (1.23 percent). He has the lowest interception rate in the NFL—but also the lowest touchdown rate (among quarterbacks who attempted 200-plus passes, the exceptions being Ryan Tannehill and Daniel Jones, both of whom only played in five-plus games.
But he also had three game-winning drives, the fourth-most in the NFL, and to his credit, he won 70 percent of the games he was able to finish. Who’s to say he couldn’t have won against the Jacksonville Jaguars, or yesterday against the Cardinals?
Unfortunately the evaluation of Pickett is going to remain even more incomplete than we would have liked, having only gotten the opportunity to play a game and a half without Matt Canada as offensive coordinator. 2024 was always going to be more telling once a new system is implemented. But where we currently stand is simply a rather baffling place.
