Kenny Pickett profile: Why the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted the QB in the 2022 NFL Draft
The Pittsburgh Steelers picked Kenny Pickett with the 20th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Pickett stands at 6’3” and weighs in at 220 pounds. Just a three-star recruit in 2017, Pickett saw action in four games as a freshman, including a start in the season finale, before taking over as the full-time starter the following season and even adding a year, thanks to the COVID redshirt.
He was once roommates with Joe Burrow at the Manning Passing Academy, together with most of the big-name quarterbacks in college football. It is funny now when you look at how similar the end of their collegiate careers went.
Pickett went from a solid player (60.5 completion percentage with 38 TDs vs. 24 INTs) to an ACC Player of the Year and Heisman finalist in 2021 (finished at No. 3). He drastically improved, completing 67.2 percent of his passes for 4319 yards, 42 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions to go with a career-high 233 yards and five scores as a runner.
In the previous four seasons, the Panthers went from 111th in the nation in terms of passing attempts to throwing the ball about 40 times a game in 2019. There was a step back the following year, but then Pickett had one of the best quarterback seasons in ACC history in 2021.
Kenny Pickett's strengths
When you watch him play, he looks like he’s played quarterback since coming out of the womb, with a natural feel for leverage advantages and where he puts the ball to throw his receivers open.
Even before this past season, Pickett worked through his progression pretty quickly. His upper and lower body are married, and he does well in a rhythmic passing attack.
He can rapidly decipher information between the hashes, doesn’t shy away from attacking the middle of the field, targets windows his receiver is yet to enter, delivers some real power throws to those areas, and layers the ball when needed.
All over his tape, you see the ball come out before his receivers have even gotten into their breaks and arrive there just as they come out of them. If you leave a cushion for one of his targets on the inside running slant or stick routes, the ball is going there right away. And the ball seems to be always put directly on the numbers without slowing down his targets and not allowing defenders to swipe through their reach.
When the defense backs up in zone coverage, and he has the back curling up over the middle, he gets the ball there right at the top of his drop. Yet, if he needs to drive for deep comebacks at the sideline, he can do that before the flat defender can gain enough depth.
Pickett doesn’t take long to find a solution for seeing a defender get pulled away from his zone and attacking that voided area. He can effectively force safeties to widen with his eyes to create a window over the middle.
Pickett was asked to push the ball down the field more this past season. His 1,299 deep yards (on passes of 20+ yards) were the second-most in college football. The ball seems to always be put away from the defender and where his receivers can watch it drop into the bucket. He understands when he can put the ball up for grabs and where to place it for his receivers to make a play on it, if he doesn’t have an alternative.
Thanks to his high-level throwing on the run, Pickett was heavily featured in the rollout game. He can connect on some beautiful spot throws while rolling to the right and not releasing from a clean platform/off the wrong foot and loft it over the top of the defense, if one of his receivers gets behind them.
There was one touchdown in the Clemson game, where he hit the number three receiver on a corner route while releasing the ball with both feet off the ground.
Particularly impressive are those balls that are just above the white line, where only his receiver can get a chance at it after working back down the ladder, as well as some of his teammates understanding when they can work back inside or stop before they run themselves into that crowd when working across the field since he’s willing to make some throws slightly across his body.
When he leaves the pocket out of structure, he routinely shows the ability to turn back from runner into passer when he gets out to the edge and sees a receiver work himself open.
As long as there’s no color flashing up the middle, he shows pretty composure as a pocket passer, not panicking when the space is compressed, and there are people around his legs.
However, he also has some shiftiness to get around rushers and can cut off either foot to slide inside of blocks as a defender tries to meet him in the lane.
The Panthers' coaching staff made use of his mobility, not only moving the pocket but also working in draw plays, particularly after faking screens off motion. He shows good mobility and is a tough runner. That way, he picked up a lot of crucial first downs with his legs and he can rip off significant gains when you give him room.
Pickett has shown off 4.73 on several occasions on the field. He routinely outran defensive ends to the sideline when he had to roll that way, and he created positive plays.
Overeager blitzes off the edge got burnt quite a bit when they were aimed too directly at him, while he packs a nice spin move to punish guys who don’t aim at his outside hip coming from his backside.
Second/third level defenders are surprised as he kicks into top gear, and their angle proves to be too aggressive. Then he can tip-toe the white line pretty effectively for a couple of extra yards.
When needed, he will stretch out to every inch he can get as they leap towards the sideline, but what will serve him well to sustain his NFL career is going out of bounds and sliding (if he doesn’t fake doing so) to avoid unnecessary hits.
Kenny Pickett's weaknesses
While Pickett showed the ability to execute typical dropback concepts, you did see a lot of trips into the boundary and designs for the single receiver – which is the Biletnikoff winner in Jordan Addison – where he didn’t have to read anything out. The offensive designs play their part in it, but Pickett has to find a solution for zero-blitz more consistently and not have his eyes down on the rush right away.
It’s not talked about enough, but Pickett routinely put the ball behind his running backs working towards the flats and flips it out there at times, when a defender is all over it.
Before last season, he moved himself into trouble at times, drifting too much towards where he wants to throw it. His feet could be a little calmer, not escape from as many clean pockets unnecessarily. Having that internal clock is good, but being spooked with nobody around him isn’t.
In the last three tapes of him, he did not climb the pocket once. When he sees any pressure up the middle, even if it’s not imminent, he will drop his eyes and try to take off, where he routinely takes the second hand off the ball and swing it pretty wildly, or he releases the ball off his back-foot even though he can easily keep both cleats in the ground.
His 3.2 seconds to throw were the second-highest in the country last season, which was a large piece of that was outside the pocket. He missed some opportunities when the concept was able to get somebody breaking open, and there were moments when he was looking at an open receiver (on a crosser), and instead, he allowed himself to be wrapped up.
Particularly late in games, his process can unravel and he forgets some of his principles. There’s been a lot of discussion about Pickett's hand size, measuring in at 8 ½ inches at the combine. While many people have made fun of it, it’s not like Pickett is on the low end of the spectrum – his hands would literally be half an inch shorter than any other starting quarterback in the league. There’s a reason he’s wearing gloves, and we’ve seen him struggle to control the ball in inclement weather, such as the second half of the North Carolina game.
Other than Liberty’s Malik Willis, all quarterbacks struggled with the rain on day two of the Senior Bowl, but Pickett almost couldn’t throw it at all, and there might be games where anything further than ten yards down the field is off the table. That’s frightening, particularly for teams that play in bad weather cities.
Conclusion on Kenny Pickett
Pickett can step on an NFL field and do some good things and help a talented team win, but one can't just look at somebody who would will his troops to victory. The way he breaks down with color flashing up the middle and high-leverage moments is concerning.
He can be a productive ten-year starter, but there’s a chance you’ll be in quarterback purgatory with him. In other words, he’s Kirk Cousins with small hands but better movement skills.
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