Behind the Steel Curtain
The former first-round pick with a clear shot at his former team.
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft with the hope he would become the team’s next franchise quarterback after Ben Roethlisberger had retired just months earlier. The Steelers began the season with Mitch Trubisky as the starter, but made the switch to the University of Pittsburgh product midway through their Week 4 matchup with the New York Jets.
The Steelers went 14-10 with Pickett as the starter, but he and the offense struggled to ever get anything going. It was only after Pickett got injured that the Steelers’ offense got off the ground. Mason Rudolph started the team’s final three regular-season games in 2023, scoring 30 points in two consecutive contests - a feat the Steelers hadn’t accomplished since 2020. This, along with reports that Pickett refused to dress as the backup for Rudolph in Seattle, were just a few of several dominoes to fall leading up to his eventual trade after the Steelers signed Russell Wilson last March.
Pickett spent the 2024 season with the Philadelphia Eagles, serving as the backup to Jalen Hurts as Philadelphia won the Super Bowl. The Eagles traded him to the Cleveland Browns in March, marking a return to the AFC North for Pickett. Speaking at Browns OTAs, the former Steeler took a not-so-subtle shot at Pittsburgh while talking about his time in Philadelphia.
“I’m extremely grateful for my time in Philly,” Pickett said. “I think I was shown how it’s supposed to be done, really from the top down. 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, I think that’ll pay dividends.”
Should Pickett win the starting job in Cleveland, that return to Pittsburgh in a Browns uniform will certainly be a big talking point ahead of the matchup.
