In case you want extra indications of the Pittsburgh Steelers standing by QB Kenny Pickett, Aditi Kinkhabwala supplied it Wednesday afternoon. Showing on 93.7 The Fan, she mentioned 4 members of the Steelers teaching employees had been “angered” on the media push and narrative that the crew ought to transfer on from Kenny Pickett.
“There was a variety of chatter on the Mix doubting Kenny Pickett,” she advised The Fan’s Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller. “And I’ll let you know this. A number of new members of this employees felt so charged, form of so angered by that, that there’s most positively a private funding in seeing him succeed.”
Kinkhabwala didn’t particularly title these people, however the record of recent staffers is simple to notice. There’s a brand new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith, a brand new extensive receivers coach in Zach Azzanni, a brand new quarterbacks coach in Tom Arth, and two new assistants in Matt Baker (who has a quarterback background) and Mataeo Kambui.
Publicly, Pittsburgh has stood by Pickett. Mike Tomlin referred to as him QB1 and believed his beginning quarterback was on the roster. Proprietor Artwork Rooney II didn’t point out the crew would go in a special route at quarterback, whereas GM Omar Khan mentioned on the Mix he had full religion in Pickett’s potential to show his profession round.
If true, the Steelers received’t be gamers for any of the big-name quarterbacks linked to them: Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, or Kirk Cousins. Most reporting has mentioned as a lot, although there’s been loads of hypothesis in regards to the crew moving into one other route. The nationwide media has spent a lot of this offseason cycle trashing Pickett and his future with the crew. Most not too long ago, former Steelers’ security Ryan Clark mentioned Pittsburgh’s making the unsuitable transfer sticking with Pickett.
The teaching employees feels in a different way.
“I spoke to 4 separate employees members who all mentioned it solely makes them really feel that rather more strongly that they wish to see Kenny succeed,” Kinkhabwala mentioned.
Based mostly on his first two years, Pickett isn’t on monitor for achievement. Solely 13 landing passes with a 1:1 landing to interception ratio, a comparatively low completion price, and scant total manufacturing are alarming. Traditionally, few gamers have had such little output after which turned their careers round. However Pittsburgh is banking on Pickett changing into an outlier, believing former OC Matt Canada was the core downside. With an skilled OC like Arthur Smith, Pickett will grow to be the face of the franchise.
In the event that they’re proper, the Steelers’ affected person and regular hand can be praised by those that criticized them. If not, the Steelers’ stubbornness will once more be proven to be the group’s Achilles heel.
