Steelers and Sam Darnold

Injuries probably derail him regardless, but that doesn't mean Tomlin didn't fail miserably in handling Pickett. That played a big role in the step backward he took in year two.

 

Tomlin chose and promoted Canada. An OC that didnt make any Qb look good. He and the steelers didnt have the patience to allow KP to develop. They sack Canada and then after KP starts playing better bench him for no apparent reason after he was cleared to play. Bringing in Wilson wasnt competition, it was a no confidence vote of KP. Tomlin had no interest in developing a Qb. KP not being able to make something of his career later just makes the Steelers look like they knew what they were doing (Tomlin? The offensive guru who promoted Canada?) but in reality i think they just got lucky. Could KP have handled the situation better? sure. But i think at least half the young 20 something first round picks react the same way.

and i think thats part of the reason they brought McCarthy in. Cause hes actually developed young Qb’s.

 

Steelers dragged Pickett to a winning record. Pickett has been so good everywhere he's gone that he now has a franchise QB contract for ... wait for it... 1 yr/$7.5M. The guy literally said he "learned nothing" while on the sidelines with injury. If that isn't the wrong attitude for a young QB then I don't know what is. I'm just glad Pickett took his ball and went elsewhere before the Steelers sunk a half decade in him to try to coach him up. Do an AI search on him and the number one factor that comes up in multiple reviews of why he hasn't succeeded in the NFL is his lack of arm strength. That's something that can't be coached up.

 

Sweet googly moogly. For the KP stans on here. Answer this. Take ALL the things that happened with the Steelers and box them up and leave them off to one side. Why was KP mediocre at best for 3/4 college seasons? What was different about his game in that one last season?

If you look at the majority of his college career....KP played like exactly what he has been in the NFL, a fringe back-up QB.

From someone who knows nothing about Pitt football, it all looks like it is fairly consistent. Dude is a mediocre QB without any high end traits. Gets over-drafted due to circumstances and one really good season based on flinging the ball to Addison. Then hits NFL level competition and reverts to what he has always been...a mediocre QB.

We get it. Matt Canada was one of the worst offensive coordinators to ever stalk an NFL sideline. Almost certainly totally unable to do the job. No one is debating that. But....why is it just taken as a truism that KP is even capable of playing in the NFL? How many QBs get drafted every year and just can't play at that level?

Using the same logic, Matt Canada also ruined Chris Oladokun.

 

Canada wasn't good for Kenny.

Kenny wasn't good for Canada.

They deserved each other IMO.

Unless we could play Cincy every game. Kenny did look good against Cincy (both before and after Canada).

 

What people choose to ignore is that it wasn't an apples-to-apples situation. Pickett had been out for a month and he wasn't 100 percent. Rudolph had been playing. It made sense, but it was a terrible way to handle a young quarterback, especially after he had surgery to rush his recovery. Compound that by signing Wilson to start the following season. (I don't buy that "it was only pole position" nonsense for a second.), and Pickett saying he wants out made sense. He was in a bad situation with a coach who refused to trust him and he knew it. To make matters worse, not only did he lose his job due to injury, he wasn't being given an opportunity to win it back the following season.

 

KP didn't suck at everything. He actually became quite good at throwing the 5 yd out, made some plays between the 20s, but couldn't master the RZ where windows are small, accuracy and ball velocity are key.
Your view of how things played out doesn't sync with 90% of observers.