Former Steelers Tackle Offers Perspective, Kenny Pickett Has No One To Blame For His Injury But Himself

Pittsburgh Steelers second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett was tackleed from behind and injured during the second quarter of the humiliating Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Pittsburgh lost 24-10 in a game that was riddled with errors, penalties and a lack of execution. The multiple injuries that occurred included Isaac Seumalo's shoulder, Minkah Fitzpatrick's broken hand, and Pickett's ankle. One former Steelers defensive tackle, Chris Hoke, is blaming Pickett's injury on the young quarterback and no one else. 

During the play where he was hurt, Pickett seemed to be unable to find an open receiver and instead tried to scramble for the end zone. Pickett's struggle to read the field is a topic that comes up frequently. He seems unable to see the whole field or to read it accurately when under pressure. That has led to him taking sacks, or throwing balls away when a receiver is wide open. Hoke, during KDKA's Extra Point Postgame Show with reporter Bob Pompeani, said that he empathizes with Pickett, but he has to read the field better.  

"That's tough when you're a quarterback, when you go out and run outside the pocket, you become a running back. So you're going to get hit hard. When I watched this play again, Calvin Austin came across in motion, was open in the flat. Kenny didn't see him. That should have been the first option, Kenny hits him, touchdown," said Hoke.

This all comes on the heels of Pickett having a strong showing in Week 12 against the Cincinnati Bengals. During that game, Pickett completed a whopping 72% of his passes and threw for 278 yards. This helped the Steelers' offense amass more than 400 total yards of offense in nearly three years. According to Hoke, this isn't the first time he has seen Pickett and his poor field vision impact his performance.  

"It reminds me of the first time he hurt his ankle, a receiver was open, he rolled out and rolled right into the defender and got sacked and got hurt. If he would have just taken his reads, and thrown the ball and checked it down and thrown it to the first option, he wouldn't have gotten hurt here as well. It's unfortunate it happened but it could have been avoided," added Hoke.

He isn't wrong. In the play where Pickett was injured, Calvin Austin III went in motion on the right side before the snap. With the always well-covered George Pickens off to the left side of the field, drawing defenders away, Pickett could have thrown the ball to Austin for an easy six points. 

Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to re-watch almost any broken play and find a way that it could have been successful. That doesn't do much to help Pickett or the Steelers now unless they learn from it. 

Steelers Suffer Disappointing Loss In Week 13

The Steelers made a lot of mistakes in the loss to Arizona. Pickett's might have had the biggest impact because of his injury, but it was far from the worst. After a relatively strong showing against the Cincinnati Bengals, hot on the heels of firing Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada, this loss felt extra painful. 

The offensive line was not up to par, with center Mason Cole looking especially awful. While he has struggled all season with low snaps, the Cardinals game was worse than normal. At one point, a low snap led to a fumble that the Cardinals were able to recover and turn into a touchdown later on. The offensive line woes weren't all of it; the Steelers also drew nine penalties including one on rookie Joey Porter Jr. that set up an easy James Conner touchdown. 

During his 24 games as a starter, Pickett has only 13 touchdown passes on his 713 passing attempts. The last time he threw a touchdown was at the beginning of November against the Tennessee Titans. The Steelers have played four games since then. That's a concerning statistic. 

It isn't unusual for a quarterback to miss an open receiver, it happens, but like Hoke said, it happens with Pickett more than you would expect. It is also something that leads to the already injury-prone quarterback putting himself in danger regularly. This adds fuel to the fire on the argument about whether or not Pickett is actually the face of the franchise. Is this just newish quarterback growing pains or is this a sign of a much bigger problem?

What do you think about Pickett? Does he just need time or is he not "it"? Do you agree with Hoke that he is getting himself hurt by not seeing the field? What should the Steelers do about their quarterback situation? Who is the biggest problem on the offense? Tell us what you think! Click to comment below.

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