Despite Steelers leaks, Kenny Pickett is responsible for his untimely Pittsburgh exit

A lot went into Kenny Pickett failing in Pittsburgh. While there are some rumblings that people inside the Pittsburgh Steelers' building may have contributed to his untimely exodus by way of an alleged character assassination, a coup if you will, the former first-round pick should have played better at the helm of the offense. They had more wins (14) than Pickett had touchdowns (13) in his 24 starts.

Long before the Steelers took pick with the No. 20 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, I had major reservations about Pittsburgh taking him. He was a local product from Pitt, who catapulted to the top of the weakest quarterback draft class of my lifetime, based on one great season as a redshirt senior. Pitt may have won the ACC, but they lost earlier in the year to the freaking Western Michigan Broncos.

Historically, Pittsburgh has avoided drafting college stars in-state to avoid this kind of blowback. They may have been feeling it after positive early returns on former Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth, but anyone who followed college football could have seen this disaster coming. The two-gloved nonsense played a part in Pickett being largely unable to throw the ball downfield with any conviction.

Now in year three in the league, he is playing for his favorite team as a kid in the Philadelphia Eagles.

Pittsburgh Steelers leaks further contributed to Kenny Pickett's failure

No, I don't think Steelers are without fault in this. They love to point the finger at somebody else because how could they possibly do anything wrong ever? Like clockwork, they win at least nine games every single season. To me, the reaching draft selection of Pickett epitomizes the departure of long-time Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert. He is a hall of famer, while his predecessor is not.

Drafting Pickett is the kind of rookie general manager mistake that sets organizations up for failure. I will give Omar Khan credit for realizing his predecessor's huge mistake and pivoting onto some highly combustible combination of Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. Maybe one of them will be as good as Tommy Maddox was for that one season two decades ago? Either way, the Steelers are just as much at fault.

Ultimately, we are living in an NFL world where starting quarterbacks are given even less runway to take off. You can either fly the plane or you can't. There shall be no learning on the job, bruh. Even can't-miss prospects like Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville have yielded mixed reviews. Then again, he still got paid, mostly because Shahid Khan likes to pay a premium for everything. At least he can do it.

For now, we must accept that the Steelers' great expectations for Pickett were so grossly overstated.