Dawgs By Nature
Can Cleveland’s new QB regain a starting role after a year spent washing off the stink of Pittsburgh?
The Cleveland Browns have received ample attention for their ongoing quarterback woes, and with good reason.
After cycling through a series of quarterbacks, ranging from Ty Detmer to Bailey Zappe, since 1999, including five first-round selections, the Browns have built a reputation as the team where quarterbacks go to struggle.
Related: Joe Flacco reiterates his thoughts on mentoring young QBs
But there is another team in the AFC North Division whose struggles in recent years put them on equal footing with the Browns, and that is the NFL’s so-called “model franchise,” the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Over the past decade, the Steelers have started Landry Jones, Michael Vick, Mason Rudolph, Devlin Hodges, Mitch Trubisky, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and Kenny Pickett at various times at quarterback.
Pittsburgh did have the luxury of having Ben Roethlisberger around until he retired after the 2021 season. But even so, that list is not an impressive one and points to the Steelers’ inability to evaluate and/or develop players at the game’s most important position.
Which brings us to Pickett, a first-round selection by the Steelers in 2022 who spent two mostly forgettable seasons in Pittsburgh. Pickett got out when the Steelers traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2024 offseason. With the Eagles, Pickett appeared in five mostly forgettable games, although he did lead the Eagles to a win in his lone start.
Pickett is now with the Browns as part of the quarterback quartet with veteran Joe Flacco and rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.
And even though he was only with the Eagles for a single season, that may have been long enough to wash off any residual stink from his time in Pittsburgh, as Pickett explained this week when asked about how his time in Philadelphia impacted him (quote via a team-provided transcript):
“Yeah, I’m extremely grateful for my time in Philly. I think I was just shown how it’s supposed to be done, really, from the top down. So when you get a chance to see what it’s supposed to look like and how it should look on a day-to-day basis, not just on Sundays. You know, I think it’ll pay dividends for me in the future.”
Hopefully, Pickett is right about those dividends paying off. Much has been made about the Browns “giving up assets” to acquire him as some sign that he is a lock to make the final roster. But Cleveland only gave up quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and a fifth-round selection in the deal, so it would not be difficult to move on from Pickett when the final roster cutdown arrives at the end of the summer.
But if Pickett did pick up a few things from the Eagles, he might end up as the lone quarterback to find success after getting away from the Steelers.
