When reports came out that the Pittsburgh Steelers were interested in QB Russell Wilson, the natural assumption was that the Steelers wanted him as the starter for 2024. That assumption went against everything Steelers leadership had said about bringing in competition for incumbent starter QB Kenny Pickett. Then again, interest (and then reportedly agreeing to terms with him) bucked expectations.
However, you can count ESPN’s Louis Riddick among those who think the Steelers still intend to hold an honest-to-goodness quarterback competition this offseason between Wilson and Pickett. Riddick talked about the signing on the SportsCenter Special NFL Free Agency Countdown on Monday, and he’s excited to see what happens in Pittsburgh between Wilson and Pickett.
“It’s going to be about what happens in training camp and on the football field,” Riddick said. “Russ better start playing on time in this offense… If you look at Kenny Pickett late in the year, once Matt Canada was fired, they went into Cincinnati, and Kenny Pickett had the best game of his career. When they started pushing the football down the field, he was playing on time. Then he gets hurt. I think this is going to be a true, open competition. Pittsburgh’s just not the kind of organization that just throws in the towel on somebody like that. I’m not saying he’s going to win the job; maybe Russ does win it… I think this will be an absolute firecracker of a competition.”
Riddick is certainly correct about Pickett’s performance against Cincinnati. He completed 24 of his 33 passing attempts for 278 yards. The yardage and the completion percentage (72.7 percent) were season highs. He only hit the 70-percent mark one other time in 2023, and that was the start to the following week’s game versus the Arizona Cardinals. Unfortunately, that was the game where Pickett was injured, as Riddick referenced on the free agency show.
Pickett never saw the field again in 2023 thanks to the injury and Mason Rudolph’s performances in relief of Mitch Trubisky’s lackluster performance replacing Pickett. Even after Pickett got healthy, Rudolph kept playing because the offense was producing points for the first time all season.
That was the problem for Pickett. Even when he had the best game of the season in terms of yardage and completion percentage (and second-best yards per attempt,) Pickett and the offense barely produced points. Pickett only threw for six touchdowns in his 12 appearances.
Hence, the need to address the position. Wilson, even in Denver’s bad situation, threw for 26 touchdowns in 15 games during the 2023 season. It’s certainly a way to try to answer the unanswerable question of how good the Steelers would have been in 2023 with halfway-decent quarterback play.
When the reports came, most people assumed there was no way that Wilson would come into a situation where he was not the starter. Yet here is Riddick still thinking that the Steelers will have quite the competition come the opening of training camp at St. Vincent College this summer between Wilson and Pickett. He’s not the only one, either. Rich Eisen has already expressed his feelings that the financial aspect for the Steelers means it will be an actual competition. Will that be the case? Only time will tell. Either way, it will be a very interesting offseason in Pittsburgh.
