Kenny Pickett to Wear No. 8 with Steelers, Jersey Available for Pre-Order

The jersey of the 2022 first-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett, is No. 8 as announced by the team in a tweet and available for pre-order.

#️⃣8️⃣….Kenny picked it 🔥

Preorder your @kennypickett10 jersey now: https://t.co/IjcXnFh5eh pic.twitter.com/vVCrqvwjy2

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 29, 2022

While the number was originally occupied by safety and West Virginia graduate Karl Joseph, Pickett will wear the No. 8 this seasons and Joseph will be given a new number. Pickett wore No. 8 for five seasons while in college at Pitt.

Joseph hasn’t always worn the No. 8 while playing in the NFL. After being drafted, he wore No. 42 while with the Oakland Raiders. That number is an honor to wear in the Raiders organization, having previously been worn by Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott. At the time, Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio hand picked Joseph to wear the number.

When he went to the Steelers, he then wore No. 30 as a member of the team’s practice squad. It wasn’t until November of last year that Joseph switched his number to No. 8. Joseph wore No. 8 in college as a member of the West Virginia Mountaineers.

While Joseph is decently removed from his college days, it’s still the case of two rivals swapping numbers. It adds another rivalry twist to Pickett’s transition from Pitt to the Steelers, as former Penn State alumnus Franco Harris announced the draft pick on Thursday night.