Kenny Pickett enters Steelers camp at the head of the table
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For the second consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Steelers will have the same three quarterbacks in training camp.
Kenny Pickett, though, will no longer arrive as an invited guest when the Steelers report to Saint Vincent College. He has a seat firmly placed at the head of the table.
Third on the depth chart this time a year ago, Pickett did enough in 12 starts as a rookie for the Steelers to end any thought of a second consecutive summer quarterback competition and give the 25-year-old newlywed the starting job for 2023. And, if all goes as planned, beyond.
“Obviously, this is Kenny’s offense,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said, “and we’re going to go as Kenny goes.”
As a rookie, Pickett never threw more than one touchdown pass in any of his starts. He also had a pair of three-interception games and threw two more picks than touchdowns for the season. But with an emphasis on reducing his mistakes, Pickett helped the Steelers go 7-2 in the second half of the season to finish 9-8 and nearly sneak into the AFC playoffs.
Pickett presided over last-minute game-winning drives against Las Vegas and Baltimore to help the Steelers finish on a four-game winning streak, a run the team hopes can carry over into his second NFL season.
“I think that means a lot,” team president Art Rooney II said. “Being able to function like that in pressure situations — the game’s on the line, the season’s on the line, really — in those situations for us in those games, that’s good to see.”
Higher expectations
The question is, how much improvement can Pickett make in his first full season as a starter? The Steelers took several steps in the offseason to enhance his development.
Veteran quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who lost his starting job midway through Week 4, agreed to a contract extension and returns as Pickett’s backup. The Steelers also enticed Mason Rudolph to come back for another year to serve as the No. 3 quarterback.
They will provide Pickett with veteran mentors in the quarterback room.
“I think Kenny is going to continue to progress,” Trubisky said. “He’s really getting hold of this offense. When you go from Year 1 to Year 2 and you’re in the same system, you like to think you are steps ahead from last year.”
The rest of the offense didn’t exactly maintain the status quo. Free agency brought reinforcements to the interior of the offensive line and a starter in guard Isaac Seumalo. A trade landed the Steelers a veteran wide receiver in Allen Robinson. The draft provided a future starter at tackle in Broderick Jones and a mammoth tight end in Darnell Washington.
Each move was made so Pickett could continue his progression at a natural pace and not be expected to carry the offense for a full 60 minutes each week.
“This offseason, he’s done a great job in terms of his level of understanding of the big picture and what we’re trying to do on every play,” quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan said. “Where his eyes need to be, who his teammates are and their strengths and weakness. His decision making has been good, and he’s done a good job of extending plays.”
Heir apparent
When Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season, the Steelers didn’t waste time finding his heir apparent. Although they signed Trubisky in free agency and had Rudolph in the fold, the Steelers used the No. 20 pick in the NFL Draft to take Pickett, who emerged as a Heisman Trophy finalist in the final year of his record-setting career at Pitt.
Pickett entered training camp third on the depth chart, but by the end of preseason play, he had surpassed Rudolph as the backup. With the Steelers struggling to score points, he replaced Trubisky as starter at halftime of the game against the New York Jets and went 7-5 as a starter, missing one game and most of another because of a concussion.
This year, armed with those dozen starts and that late-season run of wins, Pickett entered the offseason program brimming with confidence.
“His maturation has got a lot to do with it,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “He’s probably a little lower anxiety than he was a year ago. He’s able to absorb the totality of what it is that we’re doing and the things that come with being him — the leadership component. I just think he’s in position to receive things from a different perspective this year.”
Work ethic
Pickett attended every voluntary offseason workout to make sure he got the quarterback repetitions that eluded him a year ago when he was third string.
“I feel a lot more comfortable in the system being in my second year,” Pickett said. “We’re heading in the right direction. I feel that. We just have to keep showing up every day.”
Pickett did that — and then some — in the offseason.
When players weren’t permitted on the field early in the winter and spring, Pickett spent his time in the meeting room studying film from last season, analyzing his tendencies and how other teams defended the Steelers. The hours built to a point that the Steelers converted a small coaching room into a computer lab of sorts. Pickett studied the offense and then picked the brain of All-Pro free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who also used the room for his film study.
“From Day 1, he has and does set the example in terms of his work ethic,” Sullivan said. “First in and last out. … Whether it’s a walk-through or 7-on-7 work or team reps, he’s setting an example and is interacting with his teammates. He’s doing all the things you expect him to do as a leader.”
Leadership inherently comes with the quarterback position. After all, each offensive play starts with the ball in his hands, and he decides where to throw passes and to whom.
Bonding with receivers
Pickett didn’t want to take his responsibility for granted — or have it questioned — which is why he put in so much time at the team’s practice facility. Even after minicamp ended in mid-June, Pickett — when he wasn’t marrying fiancee Amy Paternoster — spent time throwing passes at home in New Jersey to Robinson, among others.
“I just feel like it’s a natural transition,” Pickett said. “I don’t try to force anything. I just want to step up when I need to step up. We have a lot of great veterans that are all pushing in the same direction. It’s a group effort, but I’ll step up whenever I feel I need to.”
Whether that leadership translates into Pickett taking center stage in the offense remains to be seen. The Steelers’ turnaround midseason last year coincided with Najee Harris regaining his form as a 1,000-yard running back, and the organizational plan is to build on that success running the football in 2023.
For his part, Pickett helped out by cutting down on his turnovers, throwing exactly one interception over his final eight games. The conservative approach worked until late in games against Las Vegas and Baltimore when Pickett was called upon to lead fourth-quarter comebacks. He engineered four such wins overall — each one coming in the second half of the year to help the Steelers finish with a winning record.
“There is a balance for us, and we’re going to continue to let that grow,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said. “If you look at the stats and go through them, the games that we turned the football over, we didn’t win. That doesn’t mean you can play afraid to make a mistake, but there is a line there. You just can’t go out there and wing it around.”
Starting in training camp, though, Pickett will get the chance to show he is capable of handling more responsibility within the offense.
“The level of speed and the anticipation, ball location, plays within the pocket, those opportunities — the faster he’s able to do those things and do them well, there is no shortcut to that,” Sullivan said. “That comes through repetition and experience, going back over it and analyzing it and doing it over and over again.”
The Steelers finished 23rd among the league’s 32 teams in total yards and 26th in points scored. Pickett doesn’t see why the Steelers, with all of the pieces in place, can’t become one of the NFL’s top offenses.
“We have the guys on the outside, we have the guys in the backfield, the guys up front,” he said. “We have everything in place that if we execute, we’ll be able to go shot-for-shot with (teams). That’s the goal. Those teams that are playing deep into February, they have that, and that’s what we’re trying to get to.”