Kenny Pickett’s next career turn could leave Steelers fans seething

When Kenny Pickett was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, the general sentiment among Pittsburgh Steelers fans was apparent and loudly so. They wished the former first-round pick out of Pitt "good riddance" and gave the cross-state Eagles a hearty "good luck with that" dripping with sarcasm and relief that they were done with Pickett.

Though we're only in Week 2, that sentiment from Steelers fans has looked prescient. Many argued in the preseason that Tanner McKee outplayed Pickett and should've been QB2 in Philadelphia, though Nick Sirianni pushed back on that. But for now, the signal-caller is sitting on the bench behind Jalen Hurts with no real path outside of injury to playing time.

Over the first two weeks of the season, however, we've seen two top-end quarterbacks go down with serious injuries. First, it was the Green Bay Packers watching Jordan Love suffer an MCL injury and then Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa suffered another devastating concussion. As a result, there are teams that could be looking to trade for a backup quarterback, and Pickett could be that guy.

Kenny Pickett being traded to Dolphins would devastate Steelers fans

Geoffrey Knox of Inside the Iggles posited that there might not be a better time for the Eagles to trade Kenny Pickett and listed some possible landing spots. The first among them was the Miami Dolphins. But while Steelers fans might initially delight in seeing the Eagles already cutting bait with Pickett, the end result could actually be a devastating blow to the Pittsburgh ego.

Let's be abundantly clear that many of Pickett's issues so far in his NFL career have been a product of the quarterback himself. His decision-making, lack of pocket presence and general lack of physical talent at the pro level have hindered him, to be sure. But let's also not act like playing under Matt Canada in Pittsburgh helped him in any capacity either.

So when you consider the idea of Pickett going to the Dolphins and being under Mike McDaniel's watch, it's not a reach to think that the former first-round pick could be immediately elevated, especially as he gets more comfortable. For so long, the narrative around Tagovailoa was that he was too physically limited with his arm to be a high-end quarterback. Then McDaniel showed up along with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and the production drastically shot up.

In a world where the Dolphins acquire Pickett to replace Tua for however long, we could potentially see the same thing. McDaniel's offense with its creative motion and speed galore ultimately lends itself to putting things on easy mode in many cases for the quarterback. Subsequently, Pickett could come in, pick up the playbook, and start to have the best stretches of his young career.

That undeniably would be a tough pill for Steelers fans to digest. It's not to say that they were completely wrong about Kenny Pickett because, well, there's a good chance he was never going to succeed in Pittsburgh or even in Philadelphia. If there was one place he was going to skirt that narrative and change his career, though, Miami might be that spot. And now that's suddenly on the table.

So if you're a Steelers fan continuing to pray on Pickett's continued downturn, you should now be praying that a trade to the Dolphins isn't actually on the table.