Ben Roethlisberger didn’t want Kenny Pickett to fill his shoes — at least not at first.
The two-time Super Bowl champion walked into retirement after the 2021 season not due to falling out of love with the game but because, at age 39, he could no longer make the throws that defined his early success in the NFL. So when the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted hometown product Pickett with the 20th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Roethlisberger’s first instinct was that the young gun would be a threat to his legacy. If Pickett walked into the starting lineup and instantly clicked, how would that reflect on Big Ben’s work in the Steel City?
