Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett has been traded again, as the Cleveland Browns have traded Pickett to the Las Vegas Raiders, according to a report by Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Pickett spent the offseason with the Cleveland Browns, where he lost the battle to be the starting quarterback to 40-year-old Joe Flacco. The Browns will now go with a combination of rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders behind Flacco.
The Raiders reportedly sent a 2026 fifth-round pick to the Browns in exchange for Pickett. Las Vegas will use him as a backup to Geno Smith, a need that became acute for the Raiders when incumbent backup Aidan O’Connell suffered a fractured wrist in the Raiders’ preseason finale that is expected to keep him out six to eight weeks.
The trade is the third in two offseasons for Pickett, who asked to be traded from Pittsburgh last March after the Steelers signed Russell Wilson. He was traded along with a fourth-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a third-round pick and two seventh-round picks.
Pickett spent the entire 2024 season serving as the Eagles’ primary backup to Jalen Hurts, playing in five games and making one start — a victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 16.
He went on to win a championship with the Eagles, even appearing in garbage time of Philly’s Super Bowl LIX win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
This offseason, the Eagles traded Pickett to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a 2025 fifth-round pick and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who was later released by Philadelphia.
After Cleveland traded for Pickett, the Browns later signed Flacco as a free agent, setting up a competition between the two. Then Browns general manager Andrew Berry drafted both Gabriel and Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft, creating a logjam at the position. Pickett suffered a hamstring injury in training camp that prevented him from participating in Cleveland’s preseason.
The 27-year-old Pickett spent two seasons with the Steelers after the team drafted him in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Pitt. He played in 25 games, with a 14-10 record as a starter, and maintained a career passer rating of 79.3 with the Steelers. He lost his starting job to Mason Rudolph after an ankle injury during the 2023 season, and fell out of favor with the organization in the aftermath to that decision.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Former Steelers QB Kenny Pickett Traded Yet Again
