During his first media availability with the Philadelphia Eagles, former Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett acknowledged that he wanted to leave Pittsburgh in advance of Friday’s trade that sent him across the state.
He also did little to tamp down a narrative that he pouted his way through much of the last four months, including a refusal to dress for the Week 17 game in Seattle when it became clear he wouldn’t start.
When asked about that storyline surrounding the Seahawks game by the Philadelphia media Monday, Pickett said, “That goes back to a lot of the communication behind closed doors that didn’t go the way that I feel like they went in how it’s getting released. There was a plan there for that game. It went down exactly the way it was planned to go down that entire week.”
That was quite a non-answer answer. In that situation, any answer besides, “It’s not true, I never refused to dress,” is going to leave people continuing to assume you refused to dress.
In terms of the reported trade request, once the Steelers signed Russell Wilson, Pickett said, “It just felt like it was time from the things that transpired and (I) wanted to get a chance to go somewhere else to continue to grow my career.
“It was behind closed doors. I’m confident in the way that I handled it. I handled it the way I should’ve handled it. I’m excited to be here. It worked out so well that Philly was the place I ended up landing in, so I think everything happens for a reason and I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
When Pickett says, “It was time,” how much time did he really give it? He was given the starter’s job four weeks into his first regular season. The team benched twice and eventually cut the starter (Mitch Trubisky), who had the job before him. Then they let the guy who took it from Pickett (Mason Rudolph) walk out the door to Tennessee even though he was excellent in winning the last three games of the regular season to guide the team to the playoffs.
Pickett didn’t even take one snap under new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, and he wasn’t willing to endure one training camp battle from Wilson for his starting job.
Did anyone along the way tell Pickett the history of quarterbacks being challenged for their starting job in Pittsburgh? Kordell Stewart was challenged by the likes of Kent Graham and Mike Tomczak and got it back, eventually leading the team to the 2001 AFC Championship game. At least Wilson has a Hall of Fame track record and (hopefully) something left in the tank.
Four years into his career, future Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw started what would become a Super Bowl season on the bench behind Joe Gilliam.
Terry Hanratty yielded the starter’s job to Bradshaw in 1971 and stayed with the team all the way through 1976 and won two Super Bowl rings as a result.
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Sometimes, the road gets tough. Now, through this trade, it may have gotten tougher. Sure, Pickett got his wish to leave Pittsburgh. He’s even going to the Eagles, the team he grew up rooting for as a child.
But in terms of playing time, there is much less of a chance of Pickett wedging his way past Jalen Hurts than there would’ve been here replacing Wilson.
To borrow a favorite cliche of Mike Tomlin’s, that’s a far cry from “smiling in the face of adversity.” That’s just sending a frowny face emoji in a text.
When Pickett was drafted by the Steelers in 2022, even proponents of the pick understood that he may have had some limitations.
He didn’t have a cannon, but his arm was strong enough. He wasn’t a dynamic scrambler, but he certainly moved well enough. He wasn’t as tall as Big Ben, but he was big enough. His hands weren’t large, but, gosh darn it, those thumb stretching exercises were getting the job done well enough.
Basically, physically, Pickett was enough… enough. Theoretically, what was supposed to make him worthy of a first-round pick was everything else.
His smarts. His maturity. His poise. His leadership. His toughness. His command and knowledge of the game. All the things he exhibitted on a daily basis at the University of Pittsburgh and through his first year and half with the Steelers.
All those intangibles were going to heighten the average tangibles he had to the point that he was a championship-contending NFL quarterback.
Unfortunately by the end of his brief Steelers career, Pickett’s good physical gifts weren’t close to being good enough. And all those seemingly wonderful off-the-field traits ended up being detractors instead of multipliers.
Someone with so much alleged poise wouldn’t have reacted so negatively, so quickly to Rudolph staying under center late last year, and Wilson getting signed this offseason.
Maybe those positive qualities will manifest once more in Philadelphia if called upon should Hurts falter or get injured. If not, though, if Pickett thought he had had it tough in Pittsburgh, I wonder how he’ll handle criticism in a town that basks in its own reputation for dishing it out.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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