One reporter claims the Pittsburgh Steelers told Kenny Pickett that Russell Wilson is the starter. Another reporter claims the Steelers never said this to Pickett. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got ourselves an old-fashioned source off.
According to Aditi Kinkhabwala, “there were things that had been said to Kenny Pickett, things that had been sort of pledged, promised”, she told Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller on 93.7 The Fan. “My understanding is that a level of transparency was promised that didn’t come through”.
That’s not how events transpired, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Unlike what would have taken place if Pickett wanted to stick around and fight for his job, Wilson has been handed the job as the No. 1 quarterback”, he wrote recently. In other words, from his understanding, had Pickett not forced a trade, he could have competed to start.
“He has done this for a long time”, Kinkhabwala responded when asked about Dulac’s account. “He has his sources, I have some different sources”. So where does that leave us with what the Steelers told Kenny Pickett? We’re left with incomplete pictures from different points of view that don’t reveal the complete image.
It’s entirely possible that both reporters are faithful to the accounts of their sources to the best of their understanding. Is one source closer to Pickett than they are to the team? Kinkhabwala has been quite defensive of Pickett, for what it’s worth. Dulac, on the other hand, has taken a very harsh tone since the Steelers traded Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Perhaps her sources primarily capture Pickett’s point of view while Dulac’s primarily capture the team’s. That, to me, sounds reasonably likely when considering who we’re dealing with. Perhaps Pickett felt the Steelers were in so many words telling him Wilson is the starter. Perhaps the Steelers feel differently about the message they conveyed to him.
Either way, it’s always a bad idea to take any team’s word about playing time, as many Steelers have learned. And as many, many players on every team in the league learn at one point or another. Any “promise” made is purely provisional at best and dependent upon one living up to the worth of that promise.
Pickett knew the Steelers intended to challenge him because head coach Mike Tomlin announced it to the world. Did he eventually change his tune after landing Wilson, telling Pickett he’s the backup? This may be one of those things that we never actually know for sure. Those on the outside are simply going to choose which side they prefer to believe.
