Last April, Kevin Colbert did his best to leave the Pittsburgh Steelers organization in good hands with his final offseason. In the 2022 NFL Draft, the former general manager picked a player he believes will be the quarterback of the future and paired him with a talented wide receiver. So far, things are looking up.
Oftentimes, it takes years before we can truly see the results of a particular draft class. However, we certainly saw flashes from Pittsburgh's 2022 draft class during their rookie season. Here's how I would grade each selection one year later.
Steelers QB Kenny Pickett
At first, fans had a reason to be very worried. After being thrown to the wolves at halftime against the New York Jets, Kenny Pickett proceeded to struggle to score points and take care of the football. Following the bye week, however, he managed the game quite well and had one of the lowest interception rates in the league from that point on.
This improvement helped the Pittsburgh Steelers to an impressive 7-2 record following the bye week (albeit against a pedestrian schedule). Still, Pickett struggled to put up big offensive performances and relied on his defense to do the heavy lifting in the second half of the season.
While the four comeback wins were certainly nice, Pickett finished his rookie season with 7 passing touchdowns and 9 interceptions while managing a dismal 5.5 adjusted yards per attempt, per ESPN stats. Knowing there was a loaded quarterback class on the horizon the following year, fans had a right to wonder whether or not the Steelers should have waited one more offseason to find their franchise quarterback.