Struggling for most of the season and now injured, missing at least 2.5 games with an ankle sprain, the Pittsburgh Steelers still aren’t sure if QB Kenny Pickett is the franchise guy they drafted him to be. Nor is the man Pickett replaced.
Ben Roethlisberger discussed Pickett’s future on Monday’s episode of his Footbahlin podcast. While he thinks Pickett deserves more time to be evaluated, Roethlisberger understands there are concerns the team should have.
“The biggest question with Kenny right now is, is Kenny the answer? What’s the future look like? I don’t think you can make a decision yet. A final decision. He just lost his coordinator.”
“Lost,” as in, “historically fired,” might be the way to put it. Still, if Pickett remains the starter in 2024, and if the Steelers hire an external offensive coordinator, it’ll technically be Pickett’s third in three years after going through Matt Canada, interim OC Eddie Faulkner (with Mike Sullivan serving as play caller), and the new hire. Rolling through a cast of coordinators has a negative impact on young quarterbacks, and that became a driving reason why Canada was retained for 2023.
Pickett’s hardly gotten time to work with the rearranged coaching staff. Returns were promising one game in. Pickett played his best game in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals, but he struggled in the first half of Week 13’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals before exiting with injury. Now, it’s not clear when he’ll return this season, and it’s possible he won’t come back until the Week 18 regular-season finale against the Baltimore Ravens.
For Roethlisberger, perhaps Pickett’s biggest issue is a lack of confidence.
“I don’t feel like Kenny’s playing with confidence like I know that he can. The preseason he was playing with like, he was unstoppable.”
Pickett and the Steelers’ first-team offense found the end zone on all five of their preseason possessions, looking like a 2023 breakout group and a trendy pick among the national media. Once the regular season hit, Pickett and the offense went into a shell, with Pickett throwing only six touchdown passes across 12 games.
Patient teams like Pittsburgh are likely to give Pickett time. But Roethlisberger understood injuries have become a recurring theme of his two-year career, costing the team chances to evaluate his play and progression.
“That’s also an issue then. If he’s getting hurt all the time, is that someone you want to be your quarterback?”
After Saturday’s game against the Colts, Pickett will have missed three full games in his NFL career due to injury, sitting out Weeks 14 and 15 along with missing Week 15 last season due to a concussion. But he’s been bounced out of several other contests, including three this season, exiting early against the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Cardinals. He’s shown toughness and willingness to play hurt and play when given the chance, but Trubisky has relieved Pickett off the bench six times in the 25 games since Pickett was named starter (not counting the three games Trubisky has started by the time Week 15 ends, increasing that figure to nine of 25). Adjusted for the latter, that’s more than one-third of the time.
Whenever Pickett returns this season, the offseason conversation is likely to remain the same. Is he the guy of the future? Despite the issues around him, there’s little stamping his name into the clear-starter conversation. It will make for a make-or-break 2024 season, a statement that can apply to quarterback and head coach.
Catch the full show below.
