For the first time since early in his rookie season, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett will be suiting up for a game as a reserve. Returning after missing the past four games due to an ankle injury, he will now serve as the backup to Mason Rudolph, who has led the team to its two best offensive performances of the season in the past two weeks.
Depending on whom you listen to or how you choose to interpret certain comments, Pickett hasn’t necessarily handled that all too well. On the outside, we will never fully know the truth. But his teammates and coaches have told a different story.
“Kenny’s been awesome, nothing but a professional”, interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner told reporters yesterday, via transcript, when asked about how Pickett has handled his role this week as the backup to Rudolph.
Rudolph, for his part, said that “there’s never been an awkward air” in the quarterback room about the shakeup of the pecking order. “Those guys are dear friends and always professional. They know that I did nothing but support them and make them laugh as the three role in the last couple of years, so it’s just great to see that reciprocated”.
You can scour the interviews this week to find your own examples, but that has been the universal sentiment about how Pickett has respected the team’s decision and supported Rudolph with the reversal of roles.
There was a conspiracy last week regarding why Pickett did not dress for the last game, even as the emergency third quarterback. I suppose the final answer came down to the team not feeling quite comfortable enough with his mobility—but again, this is something we’ll never know definitively.
I don’t buy the idea that he refused to dress or that the team didn’t dress him as some sort of punishment for his displeasure over not starting, however. And as a competitor, I certainly wouldn’t want him to be happy about not starting.
Rudolph never was. He frequently talked, whenever he actually had the opportunity to talk, about how his ambitions never changed. His intention forever remained to be a starter and he always believed that he had the capability. But all you can control is how you go about your work.
Now Pickett is in that role, at least for one more game. Most of the Steelers beat writers anticipate that he will get another year as a starter in 2024 to see if he can turn the corner. That may be what the plan is right now, but we’ve seen plans change before.
He did go 7-3 this season when he was able to start a game and play the majority of it. Two losses attributed to him came during games in which Mitch Trubisky played the majority of the snaps, against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Arizona Cardinals. Both games were either tied or within one score at the time of his injury.
Up until recent weeks, nobody had ever questioned Pickett’s maturity or leadership or character. I personally haven’t seen nearly enough to make me run him out of town on a personal level. Even if he said that he hadn’t learned anything he wouldn’t have learned otherwise while standing on the sidelines.
