Steelers QB Kenny Pickett’s Arm ‘Noticeably Stronger’ in Year 2

Kenny Pickett is heading into a very important second season as he tries to take the next step in his development. When coming out of Pitt, his arm strength was thought to be average, but some think he may now have a stronger arm heading into his second year.

Adam Caplan of Pro Football Network talked to a source that noted that Pickett could have a stronger arm in year two, and that could very well make his leap that much easier. Pickett kept the ball within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage more often than not in Matt Canada’s offense but there is some thought that it could open up.

“And Pickett’s arm, a source with knowledge of the situation said, looked noticeably stronger during their OTA practices. Pickett’s knock in personnel circles coming into last year’s draft was that his arm strength was lacking, so it will be interesting to see what transpires in training camp,” Caplan wrote.

That would be interesting. Oftentimes, it is hard to change arm strength. Perhaps Pickett changed something that he was doing in his mechanics to get some more spice on the ball. Of course, this is the dead period of the offseason, and speculation such as that runs rampant. Former Steelers QB Charlie Batch did share optimism yesterday about Pickett, though.

“This is gonna remind me exactly of how Ben Roethlisberger went from year one to year two,” Batch said on KDKA’s All-Access. “He had a chance to study all of his plays from the season before and that’s exactly what Kenny Pickett is going to do. He’s going to see what they did with the offensive line and they expect the running game to get better, so when you have that, now he has to gain the trust with Matt Canada to push the ball down the field.”

The Steelers season and future relies on the development of Pickett into a franchise worthy quarterback. A stronger arm can help that, but there are other things that he has to work on around the edges in order for that to really synthesize onto the field. If he can take the necessary steps, Pickett could be the answer to the Steelers future.