Kenny Pickett started the first five games of the 2024 season in Russell Wilson’s place in some alternate Steelers timeline. In the actual timeline, Pickett is still a backup, only to Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia instead of Wilson in Pittsburgh. And Aditi Kinkhabwala continues to insist that he is now an Eagle because the Steelers broke their promise. She mentioned it somewhat in passing on 93.7 The Fan yesterday while discussing the Russell Wilson situation.
“Justin Fields has played well, but he has not set the world on fire. I think it’s very fair that Mike Tomlin wants to see what he has in Russell Wilson”, she said. “Whatever the reason was, there’s a reason that he promised him the starting job when, quite frankly, Kenny Pickett was still on his roster and two weeks prior he had told Kenny Pickett, ‘We’re going to do everything to support you better than we have since you’ve been here’”.
The Steelers selected Kenny Pickett 20th overall in the 2022 NFL Draft with the intention that he would be their new franchise quarterback. Not even two years later, they traded him in a pick swap shortly after signing Russell Wilson. And then they traded for Fields, who has been the beneficiary of Wilson’s injury instead of Pickett.
Pickett posted a 7-4 record last season in the 11 games he started and finished before injuring his ankle. After healing, the Steelers decided to continue with Mason Rudolph, and Tomlin said after the season that Pickett would face competition for his starting job.
He probably thought they would re-sign Rudolph and that would be his competition. Instead, they sought out Russell Wilson after the Denver Broncos cut him loose, a variable they couldn’t have counted on. But Kinkhabwala maintains the Steelers made promises to Pickett just before all that happened. One wonders what the past five games might have looked like if he were still on the roster. But either way, the conversation is now between Wilson and Fields.
Tomlin said Russell Wilson was in “pole position” throughout the offseason. Then he basically had one good drive in the preseason after missing most of training camp. Even now, he is still QB1 on the depth chart, and many wonder if he won’t be on the field within the next two weeks. He returned to full participation in practice yesterday, an important step in that direction.
A couple weeks back, Tomlin said he hadn’t updated the depth chart to reflect Fields as the starter simply because he didn’t need to. Others thought there was some strategy involved. If he were to make a “change” now, he wouldn’t be demoting Fields. He would simply be playing his healthy starter.
The starter who was to be the starter all along, from the moment the Steelers began speaking to him. That’s what most believe, anyway. There are other reporters who claim the Steelers never made any promises to Kenny Pickett. Chances are it’s all based on which source said what on what day.
But at this point, it hardly matters, as we’re on the cusp of the Fields and Wilson debate. So why are we still talking about Kenny Pickett, you ask? Well, because people keep reading about it, even the ones who don’t want to, apparently. So if you’re looking for someone to blame for this article, look in the mirror.
