Steelers didn’t exactly shoot for the stars with Kenny Pickett selection

Kenny Pickett is the newest member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but here’s why Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert chose security over upside. 

I was on FanSided’s Stacking the Box live stream when Pittsburgh’s first pick of the draft was announced. To my astonishment, it wasn’t Malik Willis — the quarterback who had been heavily linked to the Steelers all offseason.

With the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Kenny Pickett. The former Pitt Panthers quarterback will appease roughly half the fan base (those who followed him all the way through college). As for me, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the selection.

Let’s start with the good. Pickett did take a monumental leap forward in his fifth college season. Prior to his 2021 campaign, Pickett was thought of as a day-three draft choice. That changed this past year when Pickett put up perhaps the most impressive QB season in college football in 2021 with 42 touchdowns, 4,319 passing yards, and just 7 interceptions, via Sports Reference.

Pickett averaged an impressive 9.7 adjusted yards per attempt and led his team to a remarkable 11-3 record — the best since Dan Marino went 11-1 at Pitt all the way back in 1981.

However, I wouldn’t be quick to start calling Pickett the second coming of Marino. While there are things to like about his game, this very much felt like hitting a double to me, as opposed to swinging for the fences.

Steelers get a safe, but unspectacular QB

I’m not going to say that Pickett could never develop into a top-10 NFL quarterback, but I think the chances of him doing so are very unlikely, given his skill set. Pickett has plus mobility (4.73 speed) that shows up often on tape. While he’s not much of a runner, he’s good when throwing on the move — particularly to his right.

However, in terms of arm talent, there isn’t anything about Pickett that separates him from a run-of-the-mill quarterback. Pickett’s velocity on the football is just okay, and he struggles with overall throw power at times deep down the field and driving the ball to the sidelines.

After watching countless hours of tape on Kenny Pickett, this feels like a safe, yet unspectacular pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m very confident that Pickett will have a high-floor thanks to his pro-readiness and ability to go through progressions. This is something I’ve been vocal about in the past.

Unfortunately, I think he might be a bit maxed out in terms of the upside he offers. In other words, what you see is what you get.

This might be enough to keep the team’s head above water. The Steelers should be getting a competent quarterback who can extend the play and make the right reads. However, in a division that includes Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Deshaun Watson, one has the right to wonder if Pickett is going to ever be good enough to go toe-to-toe with these quarterbacks.

Because of this, I almost think the better idea would have been to swing for the fences on a quarterback with upside. I know I’m not alone in this line of thinking. Someone like Malik Willis or Matt Corral would have offered more tools to work with, but weren’t nearly as pro-ready (a trade-off I would have been willing to make).

What worries me about Pickett is that, as an NFL player, he could end up falling somewhere in the Andy Dalton, Teddy Bridgewater, Daniel Jones range of quarterbacks. In my mind, getting stuck in QB limbo is every bit as detrimental as striking out on a QB altogether, largely because of the time spent essentially going nowhere.

When it’s all said and done, I hope the Steelers did the right thing. I spent a lot of time on the quarterbacks this year, and I didn’t give a single one of them higher than a second-round grade. Still, if Kenny Pickett turns out to be a franchise quarterback, I’ll never be so glad to admit I was wrong.