Steelers QB Kenny Pickett is signed and ready to prove himself

First-round draft choice Kenny Pickett officially signed his rookie contract. Here’s what the Pittsburgh Steelers can expect from him in year one.

Probably the biggest non-story of the offseason was Kenny Pickett officially signing his rookie contract. This was made official the morning of June 23rd, Adam Schefter reports. Pickett was the last first-round pick from the 2022 NFL Draft to do so, but obviously, we knew that it was going to get done.

Agents just don’t have a lot of leverage when it comes to negotiations on rookie deals. Being the only quarterback selected in the first round this year, it wasn’t a total surprise to see him be the last first-rounder to officially ink his deal.

Now that this anticlimactic storyline is out of the way, we can focus on what’s ahead for Pickett. It’s been 19 years since the Pittsburgh Steelers felt the need to spend more than a third-round pick on the quarterback position, thanks to striking gold on Ben Roethlisberger.

Pickett is now in rare company as he joins just Roethlisberger and Mark Malone as the only three quarterbacks selected by the Steelers in the first round since Terry Bradshaw in 1970. While Malone never panned out as a franchise passer, Pittsburgh has a pretty good track record when it comes to spending elite draft capital at the QB position.

What will Steelers expect of Kenny Pickett in year one?

Eventually, the Steelers are no doubt hoping that Kenny Pickett becomes a player who can be the face of the franchise and leads this team back to the Super Bowl. But how high should expectations be for his rookie season?

Based on the order in which they ran through drills at OTAs, Pickett will likely open training camp as the third-string QB; however, this is obviously subject to change. The race should be pretty tight by the end of the summer.

Knowing the Steelers, they aren’t going to throw Pickett to the wolves to begin the season if they think that Mitch Trubisky has a better chance to win them football games. Obviously, there are a lot of assumptions that have to take place at this point, and we will know much more when we see these quarterbacks in action at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.

Based on what we saw from Trubisky during the summer and preseason with the Bills last year, my prediction would be that he would win the starting gig entering the season this year. However, if the race looks remotely tight, don’t be surprised if the Steelers turn to Pickett at some point in the first half of the season if things go south.

Once they do, there’s really no going back. If Pittsburgh turns to Pickett as the starting QB, it’s going to be awfully hard to pull him a few games later and say he’s not ready. This could crush his confidence and mess with him psychologically.

When he does see the field, I think it’s important to temper expectations. Though it’s not unheard of for rookie quarterbacks to have impressive seasons, better QB prospects like Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, and Zach Wilson all really struggled for most of their rookie seasons last year.

The hope is that Pickett’s maturity and ample college experience will help him make this transition a bit faster. Mitch Trubisky probably isn’t going to be leading the Steelers to a Super Bowl during his brief tenure, so fans should be pulling for Pickett to look like the best QB of the group in training camp.