Insider hints at Kenny Pickett's secret behind QB's massive bust with the Steelers

Just when we all thought we were done talking about how massive of a bust quarterback Kenny Pickett was for the Pittsburgh Steelers, NFL insider Aditi Kinkhabwala provided us a little more clarity than we expected. While appearing on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show, she gave us an interesting nugget in understanding why the former quarterback of the Steelers was so very awful.

Kinkhabwala did not say his name verbatim, but she heavily implied that Pickett was not set up for success because of the offense he played in. Essentially, she threw former Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada under the bus for Pickett's poor play. While we all knew he was a lousy NFL offensive coordinator, his connection to Pitt is why Pickett was taken No. 20 overall in the first place!

All I know is that the Steelers have devolved into something far less than a model organization of late.

“If you even knew, and we can talk about this offline. If you even knew the half of what he was dealing with here. I’m not willing to say he was a complete and total bust. He was not the right fit and it was not the right thing here. Let’s wait until his career is over before classifying him as a bust.”

While I would agree that Canada's bland offensive concepts didn't help, so much more went into Pickett busting this hard with Pittsburgh. His combination of a low NFL ceiling, his small hands, his overstated athletic ability and above all else, his inability to conduct himself as a believable alpha male, all contributed to his failure. The Fake Slide King became The Fake Slide Diva in two seasons...

Here is the latest episode of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show in which Kinkhabwala appeared on.

While South Park also blamed Canada before, we both know that comedic trope only goes so far.

NFL insider explains why Kenny Pickett had no chance to succeed

Pickett has since resurfaced as Jalen Hurts' backup quarterback on his boyhood favorite team in the Philadelphia Eagles. Outside of Trevor Lawrence, every first-round quarterback taken from 2021 to 2022 no longer plays for the team who drafted him. Clearly, NFL talent evaluators are getting something horribly wrong at understanding the game's most important position. This is a huge issue.

To be frank, I could have told you Pickett was more likely to be a bust than not when he came out of Pitt two years ago. He may have had a ton of starts in the ACC playing for defensive-minded Pat Narduzzi, but he didn't pop as a starter until his fifth year in the program. It wasn't quite during COVID, but a few football anomalies still popped up during the 2021 campaign, such as Pitt winning the ACC.

Overall, we should expect for the Steelers to be markedly better with Arthur Smith calling plays and either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields running the offense. Yes, Smith may need to spoon feed Wilson the play calls. He may not want to start the man he passed on at No. 4 in Fields when he was leading the former Ohio State star's hometown Atlanta Falcons. At least it won't be Pickett and Canada now...

It might be easy to point fingers at someone else, but the Steelers need to stop doing this yesterday.