This week’s Monday Night Football game featured the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts. During the game, commentator and former NFL quarterback, Troy Aikman frequently mentioned that Steelers rookie quarterback, Kenny Pickett had a different answer than most rookies as to the toughest part of the switch from college to NFL ball.
Credit: Steelers.com
Aikman, who is an ESPN analyst, told viewers that Pickett said, during the pregame interview, that his challenge was different than what most rookies report. Most rookies say that the hardest transition is the speed at which the game moves. Pickett noted his biggest adjustment was “the volume of defense he has seen.”
“Everyone just talks about the speed of players and the speed of the game is faster. That’s true. Definitely, everyone’s faster,” Pickett replied. “As a rookie coming in, one, you’re learning a new system. And, two, you’re going against a lot more defenses than you’re used to in college. So, when people think — from a quarterback standpoint at least — just talking about when the game moves faster, there’s a lot more going on mentally. So, that’s why I think it feels a lot faster than it really, truly is just [from] the physical standpoint of it.”
Pickett’s Challenge Defined
For most players, the game moves faster from college to pros, everyone talks about that. It is part of the adaptation process for rookies and why even the best rookies don’t perform as well day 1 in the NFL as they did in their last game in the pros.
Pickett is saying that it is not just the actual speed of the players, but the rapidity at which he needs to process what is happening and respond. This certainly explains some of the growing pains that Pickett has shown during his first few games and the progressive growth that has been evident.
“I think there’s just a higher volume in the game plan of defenses in the NFL based off of college. That’s just the main difference that I’ve seen,” Pickett continued. “In terms of the speed of the game, it’s not so much — for me — the physical piece of it with guys and their speed. It’s the mental processing of, first off, what’s our game plan? How do we want to attack them? And then all the different things that they do that just speed up your mind.”
The growth in the area of decision making is most evident by the fact that he has thrown zero interceptions since the bye week.
JSKO_PHOTO (Twitter)
Another Tricky Difference
Pickett also noted the sheer volume of the number of defensive coverages you see in the NFL is daunting.
“In college, you get in the flow of the game. You’re going to see the same look multiple times, and when you make sideline adjustments on it, you can almost guarantee that you’re going to get that same look that you saw earlier in the game. I think at this level, you’re going to see multiple looks of the same formation structurally,” Pickett explained.
Both Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin, as well as tight end, Pat Freiermuth, addressed this saying it is part of the learning curve for new offensive players. Freiermuth added that it is even harder for a quarterback because they have to be able to read and address the whole field.
It is clear Pickett still has growing to do. He has only had 3 touchdown passes since he took the starting job. He needs to work on making some big plays, throwing to the middle of the field more and being able to read the entire field. Catching some of those open receivers is critical to being able to spread out the defense and to put points on the board.
The progress that we are seeing is encouraging, however. What do you think of Pickett’s transition from college to pros? What do you think is his biggest area of improvement? Click to comment below.
#SteelerNation
