Steelers wouldn’t dream of trading Kenny Pickett for any these young QBs
By Tommy Jaggi
Kenny Pickett might not be perfect, but I can assure you that the Pittsburgh Steelers wouldn’t even entertain trading him for one of these quarterbacks.
I’m still not convinced that Kenny Pickett is going to be the long-term franchise quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but there’s no question that he has shown some promising signs in recent weeks. Obviously, Pickett still has a tremendous way to go before we could be talking about him as one of the better quarterbacks in the league, but that may never happen for some young NFL quarterbacks.
Despite the high first-round picks that opposing teams have invested into the quarterback position in recent years, some are trending toward bust status while others haven’t shown nearly enough in the early going.
Under no circumstances would Pittsburgh consider trading their first-round quarterback less than one full season into his career (nor would other teams be guaranteed to take the bait), but let’s entertain this hypothetical for a minute. While I can’t speak for Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan, I’m almost certain the Steelers wouldn’t dream of trading Kenny Pickett for one of these young NFL quarterbacks:
Steelers would hang up the phone on a Jets trade involving Zach Wilson
I’m not afraid to admit that I had high hopes for Zach Wilson coming out of BYU in among a star-studded cast of quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft. However, I worried at the time if he would be able to handle being under pressure constantly in the NFL. So far, the answer is a resounding ‘no.’
Wilson meets the athletic threshold at the QB position and has a whip for an arm, but none of that matters when you have wavering accuracy or when you’re the worst in the league when pressured. As a result of his poor performance this year, the Jets recently benched the 23-year-old quarterback in favor of Mike White.
Even if the Steelers really liked Wilson during the pre-draft process, there isn’t a chance in the world Tomlin and Khan would be willing to trade him for a player in his second year who is performing worse than Pickett. Pittsburgh can at least be encouraged that their QB is outplaying the former number two overall pick.