It's only been two years since the Pittsburgh Steelers traded Kenny Pickett, but it feels like decades ago. Since he left town, the team has started different quarterbacks like Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Mason Rudolph, and Aaron Rodgers.
Most fans want to forget about the Kenny Pickett era of the Steelers, but their former general manager, Kevin Colbert, doesn't want them to.
During an appearance on 93.7 The Fan morning show, Colbert couldn't help but defend the selection of Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. That pick soured rather quickly, but Pickett was the final first-round pick during Colbert's tenure as the top decision-maker in Pittsburgh. Kevin Colbert truly believes that Pickett wasn't as bad as some might claim.
"We projected Kenny to be a start-and-win NFL quarterback, and quite honestly, he lived up to that in his first two seasons with us," Colbert explained.
This statement is absolutely insane to even fathom. Yes, Pickett did have a winning record as the Steelers quarterback during this time, but much like recent Steelers history, they were nowhere close to competing for a Super Bowl. The franchise hopeful just didn't have enough talent to be a solid starting quarterback, and Colbert's recent defense is embarrassing to witness.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert doesn't think Kenny Pickett was a failure
Coming out of the draft, many saw Kenny Pickett as the top quarterback in a lackluster group of signal callers. For the most part, other than Brock Purdy, that group of quarterbacks has been a travesty. After trading Pickett, he has moved on to four teams in the span of three years. He is now a career backup with little hope of ever claiming a starting job again.
At the end of the day, Kevin Colbert wanted to be the savior of the Steelers franchise by trying to quickly fix the long-term quarterback situation.
That led to a desperation move by taking Pickett much earlier in the draft than he should have been. That set Pittsburgh back many years, but then again, the organization just cares about keeping a winning record intact.
Colbert's lackluster defense continued, "For us, he was 14-10 and trending in the right direction. So that's what we thought we had with Kenny."
Again, this defense of using Kenny Pickett's "winning record" as the best reasoning behind him being a good choice as a first-round pick is mind-boggling. No, the quarterback was never going to live up to the hype, but he never came close. The offense was never good, and Colbert and the rest of the Steelers' decision-makers at the time whiffed on that pick. This defense is laughable.
Luckily, the Kenny Pickett era with the Steelers is long gone, but that doesn't mean it still isn't affecting the team now. They are still reeling from the aftershocks of that pick, and it will take even longer for them to find a long-standing success story at the quarterback position. The pick of Kenny Pickett just showed how poor Kevin Colbert was at his job towards the end of his reign.
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