Who failed who? Determining the blame of the Steelers Kenny Pickett fiasco

The Steelers and Kenny Pickett had a disastrous fallout this offseason, as the team gave up on a player who, at one time, was viewed as the next face of the franchise. Following two bad seasons, Pittsburgh sent the former first-round pick to the Eagles in exchange for a pick swap in this past draft as well as a pair of seventh-round picks in 2025.

Considering the initial investment, this was the team cutting bait with a player they no longer wanted and one that no longer wanted to be here. No doubt this is one of the biggest draft blunders of the team in recent memories. Missing on a top quarterback is never a good look, but missing on one so atrociously and having to deal him for pennies a few seasons later is a bad look.

So who here is at fault? While Pickett had his fair share of defenders when he was still the poster boy for the team, most fans have shifted the entire blame to him. That said, the issues here run deeper. While Pickett deserves some of the blame, the Steelers are also at fault, and they need to learn from this mistake to avoid making a similar one again.

How Pickett failed the Steelers

Pickett joined the Steelers at a bad time. Post Ben Roethlisberger, this offense was looking for a new identity, and they opted to take the standout from their local college to lead this team. The pick was met with a lot of homerism and optimism, even if there was a contingent of fans (myself included) that was skeptical of the move.

His rookie season was a mixed bag. He shined in clutch moments and always remained composed under pressure. This led to some impressive late-game drives and wins for the team. During those moments, he looked like a legitimate franchise option.

The issue was the other 95 percent of the game. Poor decisions led to miscues and a slew of turnovers. He also wasn’t efficient at scoring, logging only seven passing scores compared to nine interceptions. While he shined when the game was on the line, he was consistently missing passes for the majority of the game.

A preseason for the ages propelled Pickett into the spotlight. He was the poster child for a breakout season, and fans were excited to see what he could do. The good times stopped when the regular season began, as it was apparent a breakout year wasn’t in the cards. In fact, Pickett’s play regressed from his lackluster rookie year.

This culminated in him essentially getting benched for Mason Rudolph late in the season, a move he handled poorly. It would be one thing if the Steelers were winning with him and he was performing at least at an average level. Neither was the case, yet he took the benching hard and reportedly didn’t want to dress as the backup even when healthy. This mentality continued into the offseason. The team signed Russell Wilson and Pickett requested a trade.

So where did Pickett fail the Steelers? His lack of development is the key area, as he never took steps forward. While his clutch moments were great, the majority of his tape was littered with inaccurate passes and miscues. Given his age, you would have liked a lot of those flaws to be out of his game. Add in his discontentment of not being the starter/having to compete for his job when he wasn’t performing and it was hard to justify keeping him on the roster.

How the Steelers failed Pickett

The entire process of taking Pickett to the team and coaching around him was nothing short of a disaster. While a great talent could have ultimately risen above this, that wasn’t going to be the case with a mediocre one.

It was weird to see Kevin Colbert drafting the 2022 class even though he was retiring in May of that year. It seems like he really wanted to provide the team with their next great quarterback to put an end to his impressive career.

The Steelers were hot on the scouting trail of all of the quarterbacks that year. The issue was that 2022 was one of the worst years to need a quarterback. This was the consensus then and it proved to be true, as there hasn’t been a great early-round quarterback from that class. That didn’t deter Pittsburgh from spending a lot of their time digging into the group. It was no secret, this team was taking quarterback early that year.

Amidst a class of bad choices, the Steelers decided that Pickett was their guy. There was a reason scouts were skeptical of him. He played five seasons in college and only had one good season, his final year. You would have liked to see more production from him, and you have to be skeptical of a fifth-year quarterback only performing that well in his final season.

Having backed themselves into a corner, the Steelers took a quarterback that lacked the elite traits you wanted in a top name. Most saw his ceiling as a good not great option, and I personally said his best-case scenario was a prime Andy Dalton, a player that you can win with, not win because of. That is a major compromise at the most important position in football.

There is also the whole Matt Canada issue at hand. Despite the offense being abysmal for the first two years of his tenure, the Steelers decided to keep him around for year three. As we all know, that ended with him being fired mid-season, but it certainly didn’t help having his decrepit scheme around for another year.

Honestly, it seems like the Pickett decision was geared around one single ideal. The Steelers didn't want to fade or have a few bad seasons with no true franchise quarterback on the roster, so they opted to draft Pickett knowing that he lacked the elite traits you wanted in a quarterback. The trade-off was that you would get consistent quarterback play, even if that quarterback play wasn’t particularly good. Pickett may not have lived up to his own billing, but the process as a whole was wrong.

The Steelers still don’t have a definite answer at quarterback on their roster, and there is a real chance that they will be in limbo again next year considering the makeup of their current room. 2025 looks like a weak quarterback class on paper, so Pittsburgh has to learn from its mistakes and not compromise at the quarterback position.