The 2023 season was quite a disappointment for second-year Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Entering the season, expectations were high for the young signal-caller, especially after a great preseason that saw him light things up through the air. Then, the regular season started, and Pickett fell flat.
Pickett struggled with his accuracy, rarely pushed the ball downfield, missed a number of big plays and really fell apart when there were ever any signs of pressure in the pocket. He also dealt with a handful of injuries, too, including a knee injury suffered against Houston in Week Four, a rib injury suffered in Week Eight against Jacksonville, and then an ankle injury against Arizona in Week 13 that landed required surgery.
Though he came back for the final two games of the season as the backup to Mason Rudolph, Pickett’s 2023 season put a lot of doubt over top of his future, not only in the NFL but with the Steelers in general.
For longtime NFL analyst and former scout Daniel Jeremiah, the Steelers have to do a better job of protecting Pickett in 2024, should he be the quarterback for the team moving forward.
“I wanna give him a little bit of a pass in that I don’t know that he knows what it’s like to play behind a good offensive line at the NFL level. We haven’t seen him play behind a good offensive line,” Jeremiah said during an appearance on the Extra Points Podcast with Dave Dameshek. “He’s still relatively young and inexperienced that maybe that’s something that can be improved just by putting a little bit of a better wall in front of him.
“But man, that’s sometimes, as we’ve seen over the years, those battle scars, those linger. So I’m not gonna give you a solid 100 percent this is who he is, it’s not correctable. But man, they have to be a lot better in front of him and more consistent in front of him to try and get him through that.”
The Steelers threw a ton of resources at the offensive line in the last two offseasons, signing James Daniels and Mason Cole ahead of the 2022 season, and then trading up in the first round to draft Broderick Jones in the 2023 NFL Draft after signing Isaac Seumalo in free agency.
Though the resources were certainly committed, the offensive line wasn’t good enough, especially early, in pass protection.
Pickett did his linemen no favors, either, scrambling right into pressure or bailing on clean pockets to put himself in harm’s way, but the offensive line wasn’t all that good in protection. Despite a great improvement in the run game down the stretch, the Steelers still had issues in pass protection. It will be a big emphasis in the offseason once again for GM Omar Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl.
On the year, the Steelers’ offensive line allowed 219 pressures, 33 quarterback hits and 22 sacks, according to Pro Football Focus. It’s important to note too that the Steelers had the worst pass-blocking lineman in football this season in left tackle Dan Moore Jr.
It’s shaping up to be a great offensive tackle class in the 2024 NFL Draft, and the interior of the offensive line looks strong, too. Of course, Pittsburgh could still add pieces to the offensive line and it might not matter for Pickett. He’s been this way since college, even when his offensive line was very good at Pitt in his final season.
He’s always been a bit skittish in the pocket, looking to bail at the first sign of trouble. He almost always tries to spin out to his left or fade back into nothingness, making life all the more difficult for his linemen. Regardless of what happens in front of him this offseason though, Pickett has to clean up his work in the pocket.
Rudolph, in the final four games of the season, showed that the protection is good enough, just that the quarterback has to hang in there and make plays and not worry about the rush. Pickett hasn’t shown that much in his first two years in the league. That’s going to be a big part of his development if he’s ever going to figure it out in the NFL.
