Before Russell Wilson, Pittsburgh Steelers fans beat Mike Tomlin’s chosen quarterback, Kenny Pickett, to death with one statistic: 1.8 percent. That is his career touchdown percentage. Only 1.8 percent of the passes he’s ever thrown in the NFL produced a touchdown. That is the lowest mark in NFL history among all players with 500 or more pass attempts.
It doesn’t matter that he went 14-10 as a starter with seven game-winning drives. Who cares if three of those losses came thanks to Mitch Trubisky replacing him for most of the game? He still, ultimately, completed only 62.6 percent of his passes. Only 42.3 percent of his passes produced a successful play. He averaged only 179 yards per game.
Pickett started 24 games in his Steelers career, producing all of 13 passing touchdowns. The only quarterbacks to throw fewer in their first 24 starts were Jim Ninowski, David Whitehurst, Scott Hunter, Gary Huff, Don Heinrich, and Trent Dilfer.
This background makes the interaction between new QB Russell Wilson and Tomlin all the more notable. In discussing a game in which he threw for just 114 yards but with three touchdowns, Wilson said, “Touchdowns do matter.” Off camera, Tomlin said, “They do, they do!” nodding his head, according to reporters in the room.
Wilson threw 26 touchdowns last season for the 8-9 Denver Broncos. The Steelers as an entire team produced 25 passing touchdowns since the start of the 2022 season. On the whole, Pittsburgh fared better than Denver during Wilson’s time there, but the lack of scoring capped their potential.
The Steelers believe Wilson, at an extreme discount, can unlock that in their offense with new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. He posted good numbers in the red zone last season, whereas Pickett always struggled there. Even at the height of his career late in 2022, he excelled between the 20s, but not in the red zone.
“Listen, I’ve never been a numbers guy,” Wilson said to flesh out his complete comment. What I care about, number one, is wins. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that touchdowns do matter. Those help those wins and solidify them. I’m used to being in the end zone, and we’ve got to make it a priority to get in there as much as we can.”
Do you think Tomlin didn’t discuss that during Wilson’s six-hour visit before signing? Even the blindest of the blind understood that the Steelers needed to score more points. Maybe under different circumstances, they were prepared to allow Pickett to compete, but apparently, he struggled to handle the adversity since his injury.
It may be true that Tomlin told him as recently as last week that he would compete for the starting job, but this goes back to last year. He didn’t build a strong enough resume to give the Steelers conviction to fully back him. Put simply, he didn’t score enough points. He posted a 0-7 record in games without defensive scoring in which the Steelers allowed 20-plus points. Touchdowns do matter. They do, they do!
