Kenny Pickett Looks Back on Time with Steelers: ‘Wish It Would Have Ended Differently’

NEW ORLEANS — This time a year ago, Kenny Pickett did not see himself where he stands today. Pickett, who was the first-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022, was the Steelers’ starting quarterback 365 days ago. Now he’s headed to the Super Bowl as the backup quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Pickett left his home state of New Jersey for Pittsburgh in 2016, committing to the Pitt Panthers, where he played for five seasons, honing his skills next door to the Pittsburgh Steelers on the South Side and winning an ACC title.

When the Steelers needed a quarterback after Ben Roethlisberger retired at the end of the 2021 season, Pickett just so happened to be in the draft pool, and he was unexpectedly available to the Steelers at pick No. 20, after some other interested teams passed.
It was a storybook script, especially for the oft-heartless NFL. Pickett would stay in his adopted home of Pittsburgh. The Steelers, after passing on Dan Marino in 1983, would keep the next great Pitt quarterback in town.
None of it worked out according to plan. The Steelers saddled Pickett with a failure of an offensive coordinator in Matt Canada, and despite his status as a veteran college player with ton of starting experience, he never fit in as a leader in a veteran locker room.

Pickett has become a lightning rod for the Steelers’ fanbase, with many, especially those who cheer for the Panthers on Saturdays, insisting that the Steelers wasted Pickett’s talent. Him putting up very solid numbers as a backup for Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia this season has done little to lessen that stance.
Others are critical of the way Pickett handled his opportunity, with the end-of-season drama in Seattle being seen as a connecting thread to the Steelers’ defensive stars recruiting Russell Wilson to replace Pickett last March.
Still others believe that the blame lays with the Steelers taking Pickett in the first place. The five-year college starter was seen as a safe, but low-upside choice. The fact that it didn’t work out, shows how folly the word safe can be when describing a draft pick. Two years removed from the draft, Liberty’s Malik Willis appears to be the more-promising player to be an NFL starter. Iowa State’s Brock Purdy, taken in the seventh round by the San Francisco 49ers, has been the best passer in the class.
None of those stances are completely correct, but none of them are wrong, either. The Steelers did not do the best possible job of preparing for success. Pickett did not handle his opportunity as well as he could have. The situation does prove the risk of even what are considered to be the safest draft picks and shows why prioritizing upside is important when there’s no such thing as a sure thing.
Right now, Pickett is happy. He played well when he got the call for the Eagles this season, and his team is on the cusp of championship glory. That’s a pretty good place for a football player to be.
“Yeah, man, it came a long way,” Pickett said to Steelers Now at NFL Opening Night on Monday. “You never know where the game’s gonna take you. Just, I’m grateful to be here, just be where your feet are. If you put everything into the team, good things happen, so it’s been a good year.”
Despite playing well in his 134 snaps this season, Pickett is not a major reason the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. But he feels the trade that sent him to Philly has aided his NFL development. When Pickett requested to be traded following the Steelers’ signing of Wilson, they could have sent him anywhere. He’s gotten to grow and learn in one of the best offensive environments of football, with the Eagles providing the development chops the Steelers lacked. They made Hurts one of the better starters in football after using a second-round pick on him in 2020
“Every place does it differently, but the ultimate goal is to be here [at the Super Bowl],” Pickett said. “There’s different ways to get here. I think this team, this franchise, has a really good plan on trying to get here. Seeing the way guys show up to work every day, there’s really no distractions. Guys are locked in, and there’s no secret as to why we’re here. We’ve got good players that show up to work.”
But it’s also not really where Pickett wants to be, either. I’m sure he’s perfectly happy in the Eagles midnight green and white, the colors he wore while cheering on Donovan McNabb as a youngster, but that second-place spot on the depth chart isn’t something many young players are satisfied by. Hurts isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, signed to a contract through 2028.

This is a joyous week to, in his words, be where his feet are, but it’s clear there’s some regret from Pickett about the path to this point, and ways that things could have turned out differently.
“There’s ups and downs, like a lot of guys have around the league,” he said. “I’m grateful for all the people I’ve met [in Pittsburgh]. I wish it would have ended differently, but I’m here now, and I’m really excited to be at this game.”
The future for Pickett is uncertain. He’s unlikely to get his starting shot with the Eagles any time soon. There’s also little incentive for Philadelphia to consider trading him. He has at least one more season left on his rookie contract (the Eagles hold the fifth-year option for him in 2026 that they must decide on this summer.)
Whether he will get the opportunity to be a starter again is, at this point, very uncertain. About the only sure thing is that as long as Pickett remains unproven, and the Steelers remain unable to successfully fill their quarterback vacancy, he’s going to continue to be a source of controversy for the team and its fans.