Steelers Fans Pick Kenny Pickett in PFF Mock Draft Simulator

Pittsburgh Steelers fans are picking Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett as the No. 20 in the first round of the PFF Mock Draft Simulator.

While Pickett is the first pick for the Steelers, he is not the first choice of Steelers fans and is, in fact, the third most popular choice. Liberty quarterback Malik Willis is the first choice for the fans and Central Michigan offensive tackle Bernhard Raimann is the second most-popular player. The reason that the Steelers don’t have either player as their first pick is that the Carolina Panthers fans took Willis at No. 6 and New Orleans Saints fans chose Raimann at No. 19. Pickett earned 7.9% of the Steelers fans choice for the first pick of the draft.

PFF’s Sam Munson describes Pickett’s hand size being a drawback as a quarterback, but that his last season at Pitt made him jump up considerably on people’s draft boards.

“The talk about Pickett all offseason has been about his unusually small hands for a quarterback, measuring at 8.5 inches, half an inch shorter than the nine-inch cut-off teams like to see,” Munson wrote. “Pickett had an outstanding final college season, seeing his PFF grade jump more than 20 grading points from the previous year.”

Pickett played the best collegiate season of his career last year, throwing for 4,319 yards, 42 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. His performance throughout the season lead Pitt to their first ever ACC Championship and an appearance in the Peach Bowl. He also won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and earned a spot as a Heisman finalist in New York City for his efforts last season.

Pickett has indicated that getting drafted by the Steelers, would be “a dream.” He has spent years watching the Steelers practice as they and Pitt share the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

No other NFL teams besides the Panthers and the Steelers chose to draft a quarterback in this mock draft.