As Gerry Dulac first reported yesterday, part of the reason that the Steelers traded quarterback Kenny Pickett was due to his attitude after the team signed quarterback Russell Wilson.
Adding some context to that reporting, Dulac wrote in an article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Pickett canceled an out-of-town workout with receivers the day after the Wilson news broke.
“The day after the Steelers agreed to sign Wilson, 35, Pickett canceled a scheduled out-of-town workout with the team’s wide receivers, according to sources. He has not been at the team’s South Side facility.”
Pickett also reportedly refused to dress as a backup for the team’s Week 17 game against the Seattle Seahawks, and the culmination of his attitude and the fact that he reportedly preferred to move on as he felt he was “misled” by the team is why he’s now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.
All of this doesn’t paint a pretty picture of Pickett’s attitude and mentality, as it looks like he didn’t want to compete with Wilson and thought he deserved the starting job after 25 games with just 13 touchdown passes. Pittsburgh now only has Wilson under contract at quarterback, but the team clearly felt it wasn’t worth keeping Pickett around with his attitude the way it was.
Canceling a workout with receivers not only hurts Pickett, but it hurts the team as it’s less work that the receivers can get in with someone who could’ve potentially been their quarterback next season. Instead of the Wilson news motivating Pickett and having him go that extra gear in the unlikely event he could’ve won the job, he decided he wanted to leave, something that Mark Kaboly said will always be a black mark on Pickett’s resume.
Even if Pickett was Pittsburgh’s backup quarterback for the entirety of the 2024 season, he would’ve been in a better spot in Pittsburgh than he now is in Philadelphia. In Philly, he’ll likely compete with 2023 fifth-round pick Tanner McKee for the backup job, and Wilson also had only signed a one-year deal with the Steelers. In the event he struggled, the team could’ve opted to turn back to Pickett or considered him an option for the future. With the Eagles, he’s going to struggle to see the field behind Jalen Hurts.
It was a shocking trade on the surface, as Pickett was expected to stay and back up Wilson with a chance to at least try and compete during OTAs and training camp. But knowing how Pickett acted after the news went down, it makes sense for the Steelers to move him. A malcontent in the locker room can sink team chemistry and hurt even the best teams, and now the Steelers will enter the Wilson era without the shadow of Pickett and his supposedly poor attitude looming.
While the Steelers are now in the position of needing to find a backup quarterback and adding more to the room to fill out a training camp roster, it seems as if it was best for them to separate themselves from Pickett. He’ll try to revive his NFL career in Philadelphia, and the Steelers will focus on winning with Wilson.
