Kenny Pickett was the best possible option at QB for the Steelers in 2022
By Tommy Jaggi
The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. That decision is looking like the best option this team could have made.
When Kenny Pickett was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 20th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, it’s safe to say that the fanbase was split. Many fans were in his corner after watching him at Pitt, while others were more than a little concerned about outliers like his historically small hands and one year of quality production in five seasons.
However, when we look back at the alternatives Pittsburgh could have pursued during the 2022 free agency period, it becomes increasingly clear that Pickett was the right answer if the Steelers insisted on making a move for a quarterback.
We ran the scenarios, and even though we can’t watch it play out differently, it would be extremely hard to justify that any other move for a QB would have been better than their decision to select Pickett in 2022. Here are all three alternative scenarios:
Trading for a QB would have worked out poorly for the Steelers
Shortly after Ben Roethlisberger announced his retirement, there was an incredibly large group of fans who were banging the table for Pittsburgh to trade for a veteran quarterback during the 2022 offseason. The Steelers had just made the playoffs at 9-7-1, and many thought this team just needed to make a few more moves to be true playoff contenders.
We knew that there was a good chance the Seahawks and Russell Wilson were going to want a mutual parting, and we thought that there was a possibility that Derek Carr and even Aaron Rodgers could be dealt for the right price. However, these potential trades would have set the Steelers back by years.
Both Wilson and Carr were huge disappointments in 2022. Carr was benched by the Raiders for the final two games of the season while Wilson’s contract is already looking like one of the worst in the history of the league.
Rodgers would have been the only possible outcome that could have potentially yielded better results, but he is now 39 years old and it would have required multiple first-round picks to acquire him. The decision to take Kenny Pickett is certainly looking better than any trade for a veteran the Steelers could have made last offseason.