Two things can be true at once. Kevin Colbert helped build some of the most successful Pittsburgh Steelers teams in franchise history, including two Super Bowl championships and rosters loaded with Hall of Fame talent. But his final years as general manager also contributed to a hole that Pittsburgh is still working to climb out of today. One of the biggest culprits was the first-round pick spent on Kenny Pickett in 2022.
Surprisingly, he stands by their decision and still believes in the young quarterback.
“We projected Kenny to be a start-and-win NFL quarterback, and quite honestly, he lived up to that in his first two seasons with us,” Colbert said on 93.7 The Fan’s Pomp and Joe Show. “For us he was 14-10, and trending in the right direction. So that’s what we thought we had in Kenny. Kenny’s a great young man, he’s a great competitor…And I still think at a young age, I still think Kenny can continue to build on what he did with us in those first two seasons.”
Pickett is already on his fifth team in five seasons, which usually isn’t a great sign for a former first-round quarterback. While you can’t take away his winning record as a starter for the Steelers, it’s also hard to overlook what he’s done in his few opportunities since leaving the team.
Appearing in 11 games with three starts over the last two seasons, Pickett has a combined 53 completions on 87 attempts (60.9 percent) for 479 yards, three TDs, and three INTs. His record is 2-1 in those games. Much like his time in Pittsburgh, his play was wholly unspectacular, yet still somehow managing a winning record along the way.
In Pickett’s defense, he couldn’t have been set up much worse than he was as a rookie in Pittsburgh. They thrust him into action in the middle of Week 4, and gave him Matt Canada, no run game, and a painfully subpar offensive line to work with. Despite the odds being stacked against him, he won six of his final eight games to set up sky-high expectations for Year 2.
Many of those same roster issues remained in 2023, but Pickett did nothing to elevate the team and was upstaged by Mason Rudolph at the end of the season after an ankle injury sidelined Pickett. He had another 7-5 record in Year 2, but stagnated enough to prompt Pittsburgh to look for veteran help the next offseason.
Colbert still believes Pickett can be a start-and-win quarterback in the NFL. And if you look at the context of his 14-10 run in Pittsburgh, you can kind of understand why. But it’s also fair to question why they would just be looking for a start-and-win option in the first round.
First-round quarterbacks are meant to be players you can win because of, not just win with.
“I had an old scout tell me that a long time ago, hey, we’re guessing like everybody else,” Colbert said. “And we just hope that the information we have and the way we structured it and what we wanted to do with a given pick that those players pan out and sometimes they do for a given team, sometimes they have to move on. I always look at what Sam Darnold was able to do this year…Kenny’s a great young man. He is a competitor and I know he is a start-and-win quarterback based on what he did for us. And I just hope that he has the success that I think he will at some point.”
Pickett won’t get another starting opportunity unless injuries strike. If that happens, his only path back to the vision Colbert still has for him is seizing the opportunity and catching the attention for another team in free agency. Darnold got that opportunity in Year 7 with the Minnesota Vikings. Pickett is only entering Year 5, so anything can happen.
What was meant to be Colbert’s parting gift to the Steelers turned into a mistake that is still being dealt with today.
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