The Pittsburgh Steelers are putting QB Kenny Pickett and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith together this offseason. The latter is not even officially on the job yet. But their fates are now inextricably linked. Smith’s task is to get the most out of the former first-round pick.
He should be amply familiar with Pickett already. He scouted the 2022 class of quarterbacks as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, attending Pickett’s Pro Day at Pitt. The Steelers were the first team to take a quarterback, drafting Pickett at 20. Smith, a while later, made Desmond Ridder the second off the board at 74th overall in the third round.
Not only did he scout Pickett, he coached against Pickett as the Steelers and Falcons squared off in 2022. Revisiting what he had to say about his new quarterback, then, might be worthwhile.
“He’s a very smart player so you can see that growth”, he said prior to their Week 13 meeting. Pickett had just beaten the Indianapolis Colts in comeback fashion prior to facing Smith’s Falcons.
“There’s a lot of things that’s happened and I think the thing that goes unnoticed is how different these pockets are from college, that’s the thing you never can replicate in practice”, he acknowledged. He continued to talk about the increased difficulty of throwing under fire at the NFL level.
The quality of pass rushers is no comparison to what college quarterbacks face. And the pressure packages are far more nuanced. They are things most college quarterbacks never saw before. All of that requires a period of adjustment. If we’re being honest, Pickett is still making that adjustment.
While Smith didn’t specifically comment on Pickett’s performance in that aspect, there seemed to be an implication. He saw Pickett getting flighty in the pocket. Of course he did because that’s what Pickett did. Everyone who watched saw it. His pocket presence is one of the biggest improvements he needs to make.
The game against the Falcons was Pickett’s eighth of his rookie season. By then, he had still thrown just three touchdowns to eight interceptions. But the Steelers were finally starting to win, 2-1 since the bye week at that point.
“I think you’ve gotten to kind of see what they’re doing. We certainly have”, Smith said when asked if he’d gotten a feel for Pickett’s game at that point. Then he delved into the evaluation process, in which jumped knee-deep for a quarterback of his own that year.
“You don’t skip steps and also, you need to learn the league”, he said. “You’ve got to know who’s coming in and what their strengths and weaknesses. Then, you see what they’re doing as a pro. It’s not necessarily going back and looking at college tape. There’s enough now where you’ve got a good feeling”. Smith still had Marcus Mariota starting over Ridder. He watched Pickett have one of his better halves, leading the Steelers to a 16-6 lead with a touchdown to TE Connor Heyward. His Falcons tried to come back, but Pickett’s offense nearly closed out the final five-and-a-half minutes of the game despite three Atlanta timeouts.
That was well over a year ago. Pickett has played a full season, and Arthur Smith also watched most of a full season of Ridder under his watch. The Steelers must feel good about how Smith views their quarterback. After all, they hired him.
