There's been a lot of really bad reporting, or front-office lying, perhaps both, when it comes to Kenny Pickett. That should finally be over, at least as it involves the Steelers. He's not their problem anymore, gone to Philadelphia to try to resurrect (or launch) a career as Jalen Hurts' backup.
About six weeks ago, Mike Tomlin said Pickett would return as Pittsburgh's starter in 2024, but have competition. Just two weeks ago, GM Omar Khan was reported as saying he had full faith in Pickett, and about 10 days ago, a report in the Athletic said the Steelers weren't interested in acquiring Justin Fields or Russell Wilson.
Good stuff! About four days later, Pittsburgh signed Wilson, and yesterday they gave Pickett to their cross-state rivals for a 22-spot jump from the middle of the fourth round to the end of the third round (120 to 98, a compensatory pick; those things can now be traded, by the way).
Pickett was reportedly miffed about being told he wasn't going to compete with Wilson for the starting job, a belief apparently held by some Steelers fans and naive media types. Unimpressive as Wilson has been the last two years in Denver, he's a former Super Bowl champ and 9-time Pro Bowler, while Pickett has been one of the league's least productive starting quarterbacks since entering the league. There was no chance any kind of competition was going to happen just because Wilson was on a cheap contract. It's not gonna happen in Philadelphia, either.
Among all quarterbacks who've started at least half the time the last two seasons, there are only 10 who have been less useful in fantasy leagues than Wilson. The worst five of those will be backups this season, if they're on an NFL roster at all. The least productive of those is Pickett. Yes, even worse than the oft-benched Zach Wilson.
| QUARTERBACKS, FANTASY POINTS PER START, 2022-2023 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | PYd | TDP | Int | RYd | TDR | Pts |
| Josh Allen | 33 | 260.3 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 39.0 | 0.7 | 29.0 |
| Jalen Hurts | 32 | 236.2 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 42.7 | 0.9 | 27.1 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 33 | 285.8 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 22.6 | 0.1 | 25.7 |
| Lamar Jackson | 28 | 211.4 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 56.6 | 0.3 | 23.9 |
| Joe Burrow | 26 | 260.9 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 13.3 | 0.2 | 23.5 |
| Dak Prescott | 29 | 254.3 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 14.6 | 0.1 | 23.1 |
| Jordan Love | 17 | 244.6 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 14.5 | 0.2 | 22.9 |
| Kirk Cousins | 25 | 275.1 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 4.9 | 0.1 | 22.5 |
| Brock Purdy | 21 | 256.1 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 7.4 | 0.1 | 22.4 |
| Justin Fields | 28 | 171.6 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 64.3 | 0.4 | 22.4 |
| Kyler Murray | 19 | 219.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 34.8 | 0.3 | 21.8 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 33 | 246.3 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 19.1 | 0.3 | 21.7 |
| Tua Tagovailoa | 30 | 272.4 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 21.3 |
| Justin Herbert | 30 | 262.4 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 12.5 | 0.1 | 21.1 |
| Jared Goff | 34 | 265.1 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 0.1 | 21.1 |
| Geno Smith | 32 | 247.1 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 16.3 | 0.1 | 20.7 |
| Tom Brady | 17 | 276.1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | -0.1 | 0.1 | 20.3 |
| Sam Howell | 18 | 228.6 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 16.6 | 0.3 | 20.2 |
| Russell Wilson | 30 | 219.8 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 20.6 | 0.2 | 20.0 |
| Matthew Stafford | 24 | 252.2 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 0.0 | 19.0 |
| Daniel Jones | 22 | 187.0 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 41.5 | 0.4 | 19.0 |
| Derek Carr | 32 | 231.3 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 18.3 |
| Baker Mayfield | 27 | 215.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 9.0 | 0.1 | 17.5 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 18 | 205.3 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 5.2 | 0.1 | 17.1 |
| Desmond Ridder | 17 | 205.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 14.5 | 0.2 | 16.6 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 20 | 199.2 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 8.6 | 0.2 | 15.2 |
| Mac Jones | 25 | 204.7 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 7.9 | 0.0 | 15.2 |
| Zach Wilson | 20 | 191.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 15.4 | 0.1 | 14.2 |
| Kenny Pickett | 24 | 181.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 11.5 | 0.1 | 13.1 |
We've been told that the Steelers have no interest in Justin Fields, but since so many other reports involving Pittsburgh of late have been faulty, we'll see. They don't currently have another quarterback on the roster, and maybe Fields' price will be pretty cheap by draft day.
Wilson will be the starter in 2024, but few who've seen him play the last couple of years can be confident he'll be the guy in 2025.
--Andy Richardson