Locked On Steelers: Are We Asking Too Much from Kenny Pickett?

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett said he will suit up for his team on Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans, despite a rib injury that forced him from the club’s Week 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

But the real question is whether Pickett’s presence will matter. Through 2o career games, Pickett’s numbers and the numbers of his backup have been starkly similar. Pickett has completed 62.3% of his passes, has a 78 quarterback rating and a 4.87 adjusted net yards per attempt. Backup Mitch Trubisky, in his time with the Steelers, has a 64.0 completion percentage, a 76.9 passer rating and a 4.93 ANY/A.

The expectations for Pickett, the team’s first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, were that he would eventually be much better than the club’s journeyman backup. But were those expectations higher than Pickett is able to deliver? Or are the problems with the offense around him so great that it’s impossible to tell if the young quarterback is capable of achieving his goals right niw?

Alan Saunders joined Chris Carter on the Locked On Steelers Podcast to discuss that, as well as how the team will deal with the absence of Minkah Fitzpatrick, and why Omar Khan was so quiet on NFL Trade Deadline day.

RELATED: Steelers Hint at Potential Big Change in Secondary

n Check out the full archive of appearances of the SN staff on Locked On.