It’s time to have a little talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Two games ago, the Steelers gave everyone some false hope with their upset win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but the team we saw this week against the Miami Dolphins is much closer to the real Steelers.
If we want to make a list of concerns with this team from individual players or personnel, we can do that. But the notion you can ascribe fault to rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett doesn’t make much sense.
The reason is you have to make two assumptions when it comes to Pickett. First, it is expected that he will struggle. The number of rookie quarterbacks who come into the league polished enough to be highly efficient in their first season is tiny. So why do we hold Pickett to a higher standard?
Another point to support this is just how the 2022 NFL draft played out. Pickett was compared favorably to several other quarterbacks in this draft and all those others fell in the draft. Does this mean the Steelers reached for Pickett? This remains to be seen but for now, we give the front office the benefit of the doubt.
The second assumption we make is that the rest of the offense is impacting Pickett’s production far more than the other way around. So if you want to lay blame, put it on the veterans who aren’t doing enough to support their quarterback and the coaches who have mastered the art of doing less with more.
Many folks want to try to generate a quarterback controversy here but all this does is make people ignore the real issues. Mitch Trubisky isn’t going to make this team any more competitive and he has plenty of NFL experience. Everyone needs to show patience with Pickett and point their fingers at the rest of the team for why this offense is struggling so much.
