Tomlin Looking for ‘Football Justice’ for Hard-Working Kenny Pickett

PITTSBURGH — If Mike Tomlin knows the reason that his starting quarterback Kenny Pickett was suddenly far less accurate than normal in Sunday’s season-opening drubbing by the San Francisco 49ers, he isn’t saying.

Whether you would call than an explanation, an excuse or a cause, Tomlin isn’t getting into re-hashing what went wrong with Pickett on Sunday.

“We’re not looking for comfort or excuses,” To The tape is who we are at this juncture. We’re going to work to change the tape that we have control over. That tape is in the bin. It’s his, it’s mine, it’s ours. Monday night is a little bit different, and that’s why we’re working.”

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan talk during training camp on Aug. 17, 2023. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

What he is looking for is a little bit of what he calls “football justice.” Tomlin said that — whatever the reason for it — he believes that Pickett will recover from his sudden downturn in performance because of the hard work he is willing to put in on a day-in, day-out basis.

“When you work at it, you generally get good things that come out of it,” Tomlin said. “This is a guy that’s fully committed. This is a guy that works his tail off, and largely those are guys that create their own fortune. That’s my general tenor about the trajectory of him and his career. But also, in the short term. It’s reasonable to expect guys that work the way he works and prepare the way he prepares to bounce back from negative performance.”

Pickett hasn’t had many chances to show that in his pro career thus far, as his growth during his rookie season was steady. His worst performance was his first and things steadily progressed from there.

He will have to show that his well-documented hard work can now translate into making a rapid week-to-week improvement at the NFL level.