It appears the Pittsburgh Steelers are heading for an offseason full of plenty of changes, and many appear to be divided on whether or not quarterback should be one of them.
Though Kenny Pickett is 14-10 as the Steelers starter over the last two seasons, he’s averaging just 179 yards passing per game with a passer rating of 78.8 and a touchdown-to-interception ratio of one.
While many are questioning if Pickett is truly franchise QB material, four-time Super Bowl champion Terry Bradshaw isn’t one of them. Bradshaw actually defended Pickett during an appearance on “Fox NFL Sunday,” stating the Steelers need to surround him with a better supporting cast if they want him to succeed.
Pickett hasn’t played since Dec. 3, but he’s been under fire this season for the lack of noticeable progress since his rookie year.
He’s actually averaging 12.4 fewer passing yards per game with a worse completion percentage and a higher percentage of dropbacks resulting in sacks this year than he did last season, per Pro Football Reference.
In fact, of QBs with 350 or more dropbacks, Pickett has thrown for the fewest touchdowns (six) and yards (2,070) with the fifth-worst completion percentage (62) and passer rating (81.4), and the sixth-lowest yards per pass attempt (6.4), per PFF.
While some of Pickett’s inconsistency can be attributed to recently fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, to Bradshaw’s point, he’s played behind a shoddy offensive line for much of the last two seasons.
This year, Pittsburgh’s offensive line has surrendered 172 pressures, 126 hurries, 31 sacks and 28 QB hits, per Pro Football Focus, with the two tackle positions accounting for 101 pressures and 15 sacks allowed.
The Steelers drafted Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones with the 14th overall pick in the 2023 draft. If they stay in their current draft range (10-18), they could possibly look at drafting Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga, Alabama’s J.C. Latham, Georgia’s Amarius Mims, Duke’ Graham Barton or Washington’s Troy Fautanu.
