Heading into December, the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers campaign has been an interesting one. Just one month ago, they sat at 2-6 and welcomed their bye week to lick their wounds. The defense averaged an allowance of over 24 points per game to opposing offenses while rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett was still getting his feet wet to the tune of 8 interceptions in a span of 5 games. There seemed to have been an unspoken understanding amongst the team that there was a lot they had to get right for the second half of the season and in a hurry. For Pickett, it looks like he took ownership of that and has grown before our eyes through the month of November.
Steelers' Kenny Pickett (#8) reviews a play with quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan after an offensive series against the New Orleans Saints in Pittsburgh, PA. | Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
In his first five games of his career, Pickett played as one would expect from any rookie. Among those games, he tallied 112 completions on 165 attempts for 962 yards. The math comes to a 76.9 percent completion rate with an average of 8.59 yards per completion. Included in those however were those 8 glaring interceptions with a pair of touchdowns. When we compile everything together, his total quarterback rating (QBR) for those first 5 games comes out to 66.78.
If we fast forward to today, Pickett has made 63 completions on 100 attempts (a 63 percent completion rate) for 638 yards. Although his completion rate hasn’t changed much, he’s increased his yards-per-completion average up to 10.13 and hasn’t thrown an interception in his last three games. That leads to a QBR of 84.5 since the bye week. Needless to say, there is a lot of momentum going into his preparation for the Atlanta Falcons.
Kenny Pickett talked after the Steelers’ practice in Wednesday about how he’s improved since the bye week.
Steelers' Kenny Pickett (#8) works with quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan in preparation for the Atlanta Falcons. | Credit: Taylor Ollason/Pittsburgh Steelers
So, what has Pickett outlined as the catalyst behind his amplified improvement? He explained simply:
"I'm getting more comfortable with the system," he said. "That's the number one thing, if you're in a system over a long period of time, you just feel like you're in a lot more control than when you're learning it, studying formations, structure and route combinations that are new to you, once you get to do that a couple of times and you get the rhythm of the game, the rhythm of the system, you can go be yourself and play.""I think it's just continuing to get progress and improving every week," he added. "That was the focus last week. That's the focus this week. There were some good things. But also there are things I missed. I'll continue to draw on the good and learn from the bad. That's kind of the motto I've had through this whole process. It's something I'll continue to do."
I said it earlier, and I’ll say it again; Pickett has seemed to progress in his development on a daily basis. Not only by not putting the ball in poor spots on the field and turning it over, but in diagnosing opposing defensive schemes in critical areas of the field. If we think back to the Sunday night game against the Miami Dolphins, Pickett was leading the offense down the field into scoring what would have been the game-tying touchdown (and subsequent game-winning extra point), only to throw an interception in the endzone to close the game. On Monday night against the Indianapolis Colts, in a similar got-to-have-it scenario, Pickett changed up the play to get Benny Snell Jr. the ball, who would run it in for a touchdown. Pickett revisited that highlight on Wednesday:
“I think it was a conversation and I just had an idea, we were talking about what we wanted to do, I had an idea, I felt like they were really concerned with my legs and how I was doing that throughout the game. So I felt like if there was a zone read and we didn’t block the end, and actually a guy at the second level that was waiting for me too, so we had two unblocked guys and I knew we had a pretty good play that Benny got it to the left side and it worked well,” he explained.“A lot of teams were trying to throw it on them down there, they weren’t too successful you know watching the film. It looked like in a spread set, a lot of teams would have a lot more success running the football. So, adding my legs to that is something you can occupy at least one guy, luckily we had two guys that were waiting for me on the read, and Benny walked in, so it was a great play,” Pickett concluded.
Steelers' Kenny Pickett (#8) shows off his situational mobility against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, PA. | Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
We heard Pickett mention how he’s started to use his legs more to move the ball. If we think back to the early offseason period leading up to the draft, head coach Mike Tomlin expressed his desire for a mobile quarterback. Back in March, he proclaimed:
"Quarterback mobility is a more significant part of the game than it’s ever been in today’s game.”
It sounds like Tomlin got exactly that in Pickett. So far this season, Pickett has racked up 195 rushing yards with three touchdowns. Just in the last three games since the bye week, he’s posted 97 yards on the ground on 16 attempts with a touchdown. While he certainly isn’t, and doesn’t consider himself to be, a ‘run first’ quarterback, it is clear Pickett’s situational mobility is gaining the attention and respect of opposing defenses. But with that said, Pickett is growing to realize this, and the play call to Snell Jr. in Indianapolis is evidence he can play design to expose those defenses’ concerns. In college, Pickett was incredibly effective with his legs and athleticism and we are starting to see that shining now in the NFL. Pickett still has room to grow in his development, but I’d argue that he is everything we were hoping for heading into his eighth start of his career.
How do you think Pickett did last Monday night? What are you looking for this upcoming week? Let us know in the comments below!
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