The 2023 season was a bit of a mess for second-year Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett.
The former Pitt star and first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft was expected to take a significant leap forward in his second season in Pittsburgh. Instead, he might have taken a significant step backwards. Pickett struggled with accuracy issues, pocket presence and a general willingness to take some chances down the field, which really put a cap on the Steelers’ overall attack.
It also didn’t help that former offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s scheme was awful again, hindering the Steelers, not to mention the issues that Pickett dealt with throughout the season behind an offensive line that struggled at times in pass protection.
Despite those issues this season, which also saw the Steelers stick with veteran backup Mason Rudolph after Pickett returned to full health even into the playoffs, the Steelers aren’t giving up on Pickett as their potential franchise quarterback.
For NFL analyst Andy Benoit of the 33rd Team, who appeared on the Post-Gazette’s “Chipped Ham and Football” podcast with host Brian Batko, Pickett is a scheme-specific quarterback, so the Steelers have to nail that scheme in the hiring of their next offensive coordinator.
“I know that some of the guys that I, I get to work with at the 33rd Team are guys that have won a lot of games in the NFL as coaches, head coaches, coordinators. There are coaches with us that think Kenny Pickett is tremendous and that…he’s a certain kind of quarterback,” Benoit said to Batko, according to video via the Post-Gazette on YouTube. “And so if he played in a highly schemed offense, if you will — let’s say a Miami or San Francisco are the best examples — where it’s a run-pass balance, a lot of motions, lot of designed reads or let’s say defined reads on early downs, first and second down passing, you know, that kind of offense, I think he would be a very successful quarterback in a system like that. He plays the position the way coaches want it to be played.”
Too often, being viewed as a system quarterback is taken as a negative connotation. It shouldn’t be.
In San Francisco, Brock Purdy is viewed as a system quarterback, which — again — is taken negatively. However, if it were so easy in Kyle Shanahan’s system, previous quarterbacks would have played as well or better than Purdy. They haven’t. Purdy operates the system at a very high level on the field.
That matters.
Scheme can beat talent at any level. Pickett might not have the biggest, strongest arm, might not be the biggest or most athletic quarterback and might not have the overall physical traits of guys like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and other great quarterbacks in the NFL. That doesn’t mean he can’t be successful though.
“Is Kenny Pickett a guy he can just kind of go out there and play with, or do you scheme it up with him?” Benoit asked of Pickett. “And I think there are guys in the league, coaches in the NFL that believe if he played in the system where you schemed it up, he would be an excellent quarterback in that kind of system.”
The Steelers have to put the right scheme in place for him if they truly believe in his talent. It’s safe to say that Canada’s scheme didn’t exactly fit Pickett or that Pickett didn’t exactly fit Canada’s scheme. That was shown over a number of games together. Once Canada was fired, Pickett seemed to take a step forward in the six quarters he was healthy and on the field, which is encouraging.
It’s a huge third year for Pickett he is set to enter into. The Steelers have to nail the offensive coordinator hiring, not only for the offense in general to take a step forward but for Pickett to potentially reach his ceiling.
Granted, the Steelers’ offense looked good with Rudolph under center, which raised plenty of questions about Pickett moving forward, since it was largely the same system. Rudolph pushed the ball down the field more, gave his receivers more chances to make plays and really just gave the Steelers’ offense real confidence overall.
Rudolph is set to enter free agency, which could lead to him leaving Pittsburgh after a strong four-game stretch to end the season.
For Benoit though, he sees Rudolph as a high-ceiling backup.
“My sense is, and I could be wrong, but my sense is he’s probably a higher-end backup quarterback and he played at a higher end level when they needed him to this season,” Benoit said of Rudolph.
We’ll see what Rudolph fetches on the open market, should he reach it. There’s always the chance the Steelers get something done with Rudolph before he hits the open market. But even if he’s not able to land a starting job, Rudolph undoubtedly has a long future in the NFL as a high-end backup thanks to what he showed late in the 2023 season.
That’s better than planning for the commercial real estate market or shadowing politicians to get on with his life’s work.
