Tim Benz: Mike Tomlin’s assessment of Kenny Pickett’s ‘growth’ more about strategy than evaluation
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Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin staunchly endorsed the development of rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett during his Tuesday press conference.
“It’s been really impressive,” Tomlin said. “If you ask me to summarize the rate of growth and the range of growth, it’s been really impressive in all areas. I think it’s reasonable to expect it to continue.”
If that’s all true, it hasn’t manifested itself in one very statistical category.
Points.
In games that Pickett has started, the Steelers are only averaging 13.2 points per game. The NFL’s season-worst average is 14.6 from the Denver Broncos offense.
The Steelers also aren’t seeing a lot of wins. Sunday’s victory against the Saints is the first the Steelers have posted with Pickett playing the whole game.
And in terms of yards per game, Pickett is 25th in the league at 193.5. His passer rating is a league-worst 35th at 68.8. Even the benched quarterback who began the season as the starter, Mitch Trubisky, is ranked ahead of Picket at 80.1 (30th).
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So I asked Tomlin specifically where Pickett is showing the most “growth” and where he is still looking for more.
“I don’t know that I can appropriately answer that in terms of ‘the most.’ We’re just trying to win football games, and he’s a component of it,” Tomlin said. “He’s got to get better and play better each and every week. We expect that. He expects that. There’s a lot of meat on the bone in all areas of his game, but that’s not a wild statement because he is a young guy.”
Well, so much for the “specific” part of that question, I guess. Maybe I can try to answer my own question instead.
• In the win against the Saints, Pickett at least managed to avoid throwing an interception. He had eight in his previous five appearances, two of which weren’t even full games.
• Against the Saints, Pickett ran for a season-high 51 yards, including a touchdown.
• The Steelers were successful on 10 conversion attempts on third down and fourth down. They also cashed in two red-zone touchdowns.
• The team only committed one offensive pre-snap penalty, which was declined.
Those aren’t exactly the highest bars to clear. However, based on previous results, it’s a start. The problem is, if Tomlin (and his team’s fans) still have the unlikely goal of avoiding the franchise’s first losing season since 2003, Pickett and the rest of the passing game are going to have to contribute more than that. Especially against better teams than the injury-plagued, 3-7 New Orleans Saints.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, the list of such teams is long.
Fortunately for the Steelers, not many of them appear on their schedule in the second half of the season.
One does this week, though. That’s the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincy may not be the club that went to the Super Bowl a season ago. But they are still 5-4. The Steelers needed 23 points to beat them in Week 1. They haven’t exceeded 20 points in any of the eight games since then.
Also, keep in mind seven of those points that afternoon in Cincinnati were courtesy of a Minkah Fitzpatrick interception return for a touchdown.
The last time Pittsburgh went through the development of a first-round quarterback, we were all spoiled. It was Ben Roethlisberger. He didn’t lose a start until the AFC Championship game. No one in the NFL had done anything like that before. I doubt anyone will ever do it again.
As a result, in Pittsburgh, our eye level is out of whack. We should be looking more at breaking in Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges as reference points for what the “growth” of young quarterbacks looks like.
So maybe that’s where Tomlin is coming from when it comes to potentially effusive praise for Pickett thus far. If the expectations for Pickett are skewed because of what Roethlisberger did — to say nothing of how his fans at Pitt are used to seeing him play at the college level — maybe Tomlin feels the need to ratchet up his verbal praise when baby steps are taken.
Whatever the case, it certainly feels like when it comes to evaluating quarterback play, we are doing a lot of grading on a curve for Pickett.
A curve because he is a rookie. A curve because of how slowly things started for this offense in general. A curve because of some of the Pitt-related expectations.
That’s fine. Especially the rookie part. Let’s just admit that’s what we are doing, please.
And let’s admit he still needs to do more. Because what may have been good enough against the Saints likely won’t be good enough against the Bengals this weekend.
Or good enough to beat the Baltimore Ravens once or twice next month.
Or good enough to help Tomlin avoid his first losing season.