Many are assuming that Russell Wilson will easily win the starting quarterback job for the Pittsburgh Steelers over Kenny Pickett, but should it be a foregone conclusion? One line of thinking is that Wilson wouldn’t have agreed to sign with the team without a guarantee of being the starter, but on the other hand the Steelers spent much of the last few months expressing faith in Pickett.
ESPN’s Damien Woody thinks Wilson will win the job, but he does have some counterintuitive thoughts about the nature of the competition.
“I will say this, if this thing is close, it’s gonna go to Kenny Pickett because the Pittsburgh Steelers as an organization, they’re not going to give up on their first-round pick,” Woody said on Thursday morning’s episode of Get Up. “They’re not gonna give up on him, so I think Russell Wilson has to be significantly better than Kenny Pickett to win the job.”
First, addressing the notion that Wilson could have been guaranteed a starting job, there have been multiple reports including from Albert Breer on Tuesday that Wilson was made no promises. Expectations were reportedly set that he has to come in and win the job. While the nine-time Pro Bowler winning the job seems likely with his pedigree and experience, that doesn’t mean it is guaranteed.
But what would Pickett outperforming Wilson even look like? Just last year, we learned that preseason football doesn’t necessarily carry over into the regular season. Pickett had just about a perfect performance in all three preseason games and then fell flat in the regular season.
So along with another solid preseason performance from Pickett, he may have to rely on Wilson having a poor preseason performance to secure the job.
What Pickett does have working for him, and why I initially doubted that Wilson would sign for the veteran minimum, is the Steelers have a very low level of commitment to their new quarterback. At $1.21 million it would be no harm, no foul if Wilson were to end up holding a clipboard as the primary backup.
“Here’s what I’m gonna say…you can’t fool the players,” Woody said. “The players can see it. Everyone can see it. If Russell Wilson is clearly outplaying Kenny Pickett, that scenario can never play itself out in the locker room.”
Along with the locker room issues another quarterback controversy could create, Pittsburgh fans will be sure to voice their opinions. They were not shy about booing the team last year for the offensive woes. Wilson has all the hype at the moment, which could work against Pickett in the eyes of the fan base.
The best-case scenario long term for the Steelers would be for Pickett to turn his career around and win the job. That would give them time to evaluate him before his fifth-year option decision is due next May and would keep alive the hopes that he can be a franchise quarterback. But it is difficult to envision him winning the competition or what would even need to happen for that to be the case.
