Final Word: How Much Kenny Pickett in Preseason?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are more than halfway through their 16 training camp practices at St. Vincent College, but they are still a few days away from playing in their first preseason game, and that means there will be questions about how much Kenny Pickett and the rest of the starters should play.

This time last season, of course, Pickett was the third-team Steelers quarterback and his participation in those preseason games was seen as a matter of course. Now that he’s the starter, how much of Pickett will we see when the Black and Gold takes the field against real competition for the first time this season?

The trend around the NFL has been to protect starters from playing much at all in the preseason, but the Steelers have generally not ascribed to that theory. They notably beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 last year when Joe Burrow didn’t practice all preseason after an appendectomy.

Alan Saunders of Steelers Now joined Jenna Harner, Rob Rossi and Cale Berger on The Final Word to talk about Kenny Pickett, standouts from training camp, and whether the Erik Karlsson trade has the Pittsburgh Penguins closer to a championship than the Steelers and which general manager, Kyle Dubas or Omar Khan, has done a better job.

They also broke down the Karlsson trade, reacted to the news that Jake Guentzel will miss the start of the season with an ankle injury and Alan gave his Final Word about the sad state of conference realignment in college football.

Check it out:

Click for more of Alan Saunders and Dan Kingerski from Sports Now Group Pittsburgh on The Final Word on WPXI-TV Channel 11.