Can Kenny Pickett be Steelers starter if he does well against Detroit?

Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett has been outstanding so far this preseason. Is he one strong game away from getting the starting job?

Despite unspectacular showings at previous team practices, Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett has made some serious noise during the team’s ongoing preseason stretch.

Pittsburgh has already survived two of its three preseason games, with a date welcoming the Detroit Lions to Acrisure Stadium being all that stands between it and the regular season.

Based on how the team has performed in the pair of battles won so far, Detroit should hardly be much of an obstacle (not to mention that the Lions have failed to look superior to the Steelers in any way up to this point).

But when speaking of the Steelers recent quality of performance, Pickett’s name should be one of the first that pop into one’s head.

Following some rather forgettable displays on the practice field, the newbie has wasted no time proving that he’s already built for game time of at least some severity.

Through his first two preseason appearances, Pickett has thrown for a total of 171 yards—an amount to be expected when sharing offensive spotlight with two other quarterbacks and a young rushing game—racking up as many passing touchdowns as incompletions (3).

Obviously, showing reliability in back-to-back preseason games means much more than anything that happens during team practices. With that said, the question has to be asked: if Pickett once again looks strong this weekend when facing the Lions, could he lock up the starting job entering the regular season?

The question of who is Steelers QB1 is not easy to answer

The answer to such a question from a simple “yes or no” standpoint is yes, of course, he could get the nod to open the slate. However, roadblocks come in when seeing who all he is in competition with over it, along with how the Steelers schedule starts out.

Again, preseason performances mean more than practice performances, but regular-season performances mean more than both of them, and Kenny Pickett still has no experience in that regard; the same cannot be said about Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph.

Trubisky was the favorite to start heading into this preseason, having the most starting experience of the three by a rather hefty margin. And while Rudolph may not be a fan favorite, even he showed an abundance of potential against the Jaguars last weekend, so the QB race is still a tight one as of today.

The rebuttal to that, though, would be that digging up the past is rarely recommended when discussing either of those players. Some examples as to why would be Trubisky losing his place on an unimpressive Chicago Bears team and Rudolph previously being benched in favor of Samford rookie Devlin “Duck” Hodges.

And as for the early part of the upcoming schedule, the Steelers do not have an easy ride in store for them regardless of who gets to start.

I have previously argued that the difficult opening to the regular-season stretch is why Trubisky should start, as experience should trump all when addressing formidability concerns.

However, if Pittsburgh will be an underdog no matter what, then it can certainly be argued that the sharp new guy should be tested early. And to make that type of call on Pickett feels all the safer when considering how well he has done so far.

It’s unsettling to see the Steelers with such a deep QB room still be so unsure of what note they will try to enter the season on, but if Pickett has yet another efficient game against Detroit, I say to heck with the hesitation—it’s hard to see a true reason as to why he shouldn’t be passed the torch.