When Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers believed they had found his successor in the 2022 draft by selecting Kenny Pickett in the first round. That wasn’t quite how things worked out. After only two seasons with the Steelers, neither of which was very inspiring, Pickett reportedly requested a trade, not wanting to compete for the starting job against Russell Wilson. While Pickett didn’t play up to the standard of a first round pick, one analyst seems to believe that much of the blame for his failure can be placed on the Steelers.
Warren Sharp analyzes NFL data on his website, Sharp Football Analysis, and also recently wrote a book previewing the 2024 football season. In that book, Sharp breaks down several stats for each NFL team, providing some of his own analysis for what happened during their 2023 season, and what that could mean for them going forward. In the Steelers’ section, Sharp has some firm words for how the Steelers’ handled Pickett, pointing to them as the root cause of his inefficiencies.
“If you draft a QB in the first round, and then feed him to the wolves that are Matt Canada’s play calls as a rookie, and then don’t realize Canada sucks and keep him in 2023, guaranteeing another offseason without good offensive tutelage, and then fire Canada midseason, but replace him with tandem of two coaches who have never called plays in the NFL before, what are you expecting that you’ll get?
“I’m not pro-Pickett, but the way the Steelers “supported” their first round QB and hopeful heir apparent to Big Ben was embarrassing,” Sharp wrote.
Sharp’s criticisms are harsh, but they aren’t wrong. Canada was ineffectual in every way as a play caller, as Sharp detailed in his book. He lays out all the categories Canada ranked near the bottom in, including third down avoidance, explosive play rate, and yards per play. The Steelers had access to all that information, and probably more, so they had no excuses for keeping Canada after the 2022 season.
What’s maybe worse is that the Steelers chose to keep Canada after 2022 and didn’t have a backup plan in place if they decided to fire him during the middle of the season, which is what happened. As Sharp says, rather than maybe hire a veteran play caller, or at least someone with experience in that role, to serve as an offensive assistant or consultant, the Steelers split their offensive coordinator duties between two coaches on their staff. That had to only create more confusion for Pickett, who was also battling injuries in 2023.
Sharp is incorrect in stating that neither of the coaches the Steelers promoted in the middle of the season had play calling experience. Mike Sullivan, who was the Steelers’ quarterbacks coach and is currently listed as a senior offensive assistant, was the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012 and 2013, and also for the New York Giants in 2016 and 2017. None of those offenses were amazing, but they did give Sullivan some experience as an offensive play caller.
However, while the Steelers should take the blame for these actions, not all of Pickett’s failures can be credited to them. The Steelers spent much of this offseason working to improve the pieces on their offense around their quarterback, hiring a new offensive coordinator, investing in the offensive line, and trying to replenish at receiver. Pickett could have stayed and proved that he could be an effective quarterback with better pieces around him. Instead, he allegedly refused to compete and wanted out.
Sharp isn’t completely down on the Steelers though, as it seems many of his gripes could be solved with Arthur Smith at offensive coordinator now. However, it’s unfortunate that Pickett’s career with the Steelers essentially had to be sacrificed to get to this point. Had they just parted ways with Canada following the 2022 season, who knows what Pickett would have looked like. That’s all in the past though, and now, fans will have to be more focused on if Wilson or Justin Fields can be the true successor to Roethlisberger.
