Madden Monday: Steelers 'did themselves a favor' by trading Kenny Pickett to Philadelphia

The Steelers have been criticized at times for simply releasing or trading players who were pouty and didn’t want to be in Pittsburgh anymore.

Specifically, guys like Melvin Ingram, James Harrison and LeGarrette Blount weren’t happy with their roles and just wanted out of town. The same could potentially be said this offseason with Diontae Johnson and Kenny Pickett.

In the case of Pickett, he was traded to Philadelphia. The Eagles are Pickett’s hometown team. He grew up rooting for them as a kid in New Jersey. So it looks like he is getting everything he might want out of this deal after it became clear the Steelers weren’t going to keep him as the starter after acquiring Russell Wilson.

But if Pickett really was shipped out of town because of a trade request, don’t consider this an example of the Steelers bending to the whims of a disgruntled player or doing a player a favor like they did Mitch Trubisky before the start of free agency.

In fact, during this week’s Madden Monday podcast, in the case of Pickett, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive says quite the opposite.

“I think they did themselves a favor first and foremost,” Madden said. “Pickett went from a situation where if he had hung in there, he would have had a good shot inheriting the job from an older quarterback — Russell Wilson being 35. Now he’s in Philadelphia, where Jalen Hurts is one of the best quarterbacks in football, and he’s actually a couple of months younger than Pickett. So I think Pickett’s NFL career is on life support, and he’ll be in the UFL before we know it. He just played the situation all wrong, and he compounded problems created by him just not being very good in the first place.”

Related:

• First Call: Steelers have interest in veteran receiver; Kenny Pickett posts farewell to Pittsburgh
• Mark Madden: Steelers have had a perfect offseason, choosing progress over saving face
• Tim Benz: Kenny Pickett trade shows Steelers' trust in Russell Wilson ... and why we should never trust what they say

That’s true. But where I think the Steelers did do Pickett a favor is in the sense that he’s getting out of Pittsburgh, where the longer he’s here, the further away he gets from the memory of being a savior at Pitt, and the more he is looked upon as a face of failure for the first few years of the franchise’s post-Ben Roethlisberger era.

Now, at least he gets to be backup on a team he grew up cheering for, instead of being a backup on a team that ostensibly wanted to get rid of him after just two years.

“No question,” Madden said. “But if he wants to work for the team he grew up supporting, perhaps he can be a ball boy someday. He’s just got no future there. In fact, I don’t think much of an NFL future past this first contract.”

Also, in this week’s podcast, Madden and I discuss the additions of Wilson and Justin Fields to the Steelers roster, the Penguins’ reality post-trade deadline, Duquesne’s victory in the Atlantic 10 tournament and Pitt’s decision to no-show for the NIT.