Shortly after news that the Pittsburgh Steelers had landed future Hall of Fame quarterback Russell Wilson in free agency on a one-year, $1.21 million deal to presumably come in and compete for the starting job with third-year incumbent Kenny Pickett, things changed in the blink of an eye. An unhappy Pickett requested a trade, leading to him landing with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Reportedly, Pickett handled the addition of Wilson “poorly,” which reportedly was a continuation of how he handled his benching late last season once healthy for Mason Rudolph. Due to his handling of the addition and then his subsequent request to be traded, Pickett finds himself as the clear-cut backup in Philadelphia after just two seasons in Pittsburgh.
For Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio and Chris Simms, the seemingly show of entitlement from Pickett with the reaction to the Wilson addition and subsequent trade request is rather confusing, because — at least to both Florio and Simms — Pickett hasn’t done anything in the NFL to have him feeling that way.
“He had a sense, apparently, of entitlement. And what has he done in 24 regular-season starts? What has he done…to make him entitled to anything?” Florio said, according to NFL on NBC on YouTube. “His draft status? Is it, and he must not know much about the NFL ’cause your draft status doesn’t mean Jack Diddly Squat. What matters is what you do when you get a chance to play.
“And as we’ve been saying for months, and I feel bad saying this, but this is part of what we have to do. Guys play well, guys don’t play well. There’s been nothing he’s done that has made anyone say, ‘Wow, this guy could be special!’ He’s done nothing to make anyone say, ‘Oh man, if he does that a few more times per game, he’s a Pro Bowler, he’s an All-Star, they’re a Super Bowl team.’ It’s been in spite of him that they’ve been competitive not because of him, and they’ve given him a fair chance.”
In his 24 career starts with the Steelers (25 games total), Pickett had some flashes of brilliance, especially late in games. But he’s been far too inconsistent and the production just flat-out hasn’t been there. Thirteen passing touchdowns to 13 interceptions in his career. Just 4,474 passing yards in two seasons across 713 career attempts.
Sure, he found ways to win games late, but too often he was missing throws, running into pressure, having poor pocket presence and awareness and really wasn’t improving like the Steelers hoped he would in Year 2. Some of that could be placed at the feet of former offensive coordinator Matt Canada when it comes to the blame game, but Pickett regressed, and it was quite telling that the Steelers benched him late in the year when healthy for Mason Rudolph.
Then, things happened in the offseason that Pickett didn’t like, so he seemingly took his ball and went home. That is leading to many questioning him for the decision and how he handled things, even though he feels confident in what he did.
It’s certainly not great for Pickett, and now he’s in an even worse situation from a playing-time perspective.
