Sunday was a rough one for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was especially rough for rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, who took an absolute beating by the aggressive Philadelphia Eagles defense. Pickett was sacked six times and hit 11 on the way to the Steelers 35-13 blowout loss.
After the game, former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher and current NFL studio analyst spoke at length about his concerns with how the Steelers are handling Pickett and worries that by throwing him into an overly complicated offense completely devoid of a run game is going to damage his confidence going forward.
While I don’t believe Pickett lacks confidence I can’t help but agree with Cowher that Pickett is being put into an untenable situation. The Steelers defense isn’t holding up its end of the deal, the offensive line is grossly inconsistent, the skill players are the same and the coaching staff seems to be completely disjointed.
Cowher is uniquely qualified to speak on this as he was the Steelers head coach when Ben Roethlisberger took over the starting quarterback job as a rookie in 2004. The difference being Roethlisberger was inheriting a team with a dominant rushing attack and the best defense in the league. Roethlisberger was shielded from much of what Pickett is going through and it is impossible to know if the rookie goes through nine more games how it will impact his development long-term.
Bill Cowher calling out the Steelers handling of Kenny Pickett. Wow. pic.twitter.com/GFsX1T9BUq
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) October 30, 2022
