Steelers and Sam Darnold

The Pickett situation looks different now that injuries have all but destroyed his career. At the time, they were giving up on a guy whose development they stunted for Fields, a guy you and I both believed was not the answer.

No, you cannot accurately call Darnold hindsight because I was arguing for them to sign him before he signed with the Seahawks.

 

Then You can't call my Pickett hindsight because I was calling for Him to be done before his 2nd season was even over. Either way it matters not for the Steelers at this time, and I congratulate you on the Darnold talk

 

Okay then why didn't they sign any big-name free agents? Khan admitted to the media he was playing the comp game; those are all the facts I need.

 

They didn’t give up

He ran from competition

Fact

Big difference

 

Thank you for providing yet another example of your inability to tell the difference between fact and opinion, especially your fiction-based opinions.

 

You mean the story that the team leaked that some folks here lapped up because they were annoyed with the guy for not overcoming Tomlin botching his development so badly.

 

I think KP has mentally given up. Steelers just didn't handle him right. but its water under the bridge. I hope McCarthy and his guys are better at developing rookies. Tomlin certainly didn't look like he could do it.

 

Mentally weak players aren't franchise worthy. When KP rode pine after his injury and stated he "learned nothing" while on the sidelines says a lot about his character. Did we hear the same from Howard after sitting all season?

There are 1st round QBs drafted every season onto lousy teams with lousy coaching that haven't been handled right. The good ones rise above their circumstances.

 

What part of this do you not understand

They brought in competition

Fact

He then asked to be traded and ran rather than compete

Fact

The facts are simple and easy to verify

Facts

Your lack of simple comprehension is astounding

 

You do make up some bull****

I’ll stick to facts

 

He lives in his own little fantasy world

The funny part is when he first joined the board he actually made some sense but alas

 

Question: Assuming Tomlin was incapable of developing rookie QBs; Why has no other team been able to develop KP?

 

Kenny Pickett was a terrible QB no matter what, but the Steelers also did him no favors by giving him an OC like Matt Canada for almost 2 years.Possible this is on Rooney for that one too(for the fact that Canada stay at the start of 2023) because Rooney is too cheap and stuck in the past but this is a another story

Both can be true.

 

This isn't something unique to Tomlin. It happens to all teams.

A team takes a shot on a guy and it doesn't work out. If the quarterback isn't traded to a team that is looking to make him the starting quarterback, they get put into the mix of other quarterbacks while the team does everything they can to support and develop the starting player they already have.

That's why a guy like Darnold had to go to three other teams before it worked for him. Someone has to believe in you, and most teams already have someone they believe in and are trying to develop.

Look at Pickett with the Browns. He probably played better than any of them including Flacco. They look at Pickett and don't see a great quarterback. He failed somewhere else, and they wanted to roll with the young guys and one grizzled vet. We're going to keep the two draft picks and see if we can develop them. If Pickett played at the level Sanders did, do you think he would be going to the Pro Bowl? Hell no.

So much is about hype and hope. Every team is trying to find a guy that nobody has gotten their hands on yet. Developing quarterbacks once they initially fail is one of the worst things the NFL does. Most get one shot at starting and then have to hope they get lucky to get a second chance somewhere. Most never get a real second chance.

 

Agreed. If I was KP and his agent, I would be doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to get him into one of these McVay-Shanahan style systems. KP could easily be the next Mac Jones. I used to think that KP could be Purdy if they changed places....but not so sure of that any longer....but I still think KP has or at least had the skills necessary to succeed in that style of system. Honestly, if he shook loose on the market and I was the Vikings...I would bring him in.

 

There's no doubt that he was not a first round talent.

When he came out, I said that in a normal year, he was probably a borderline second/third round pick. In a QB year that is short on talent, he maybe gets bumped to the second round.

I thought Pickett had some talent, but I was hoping they wouldn't take him in the first round. I just didn't see that type of ability in him to draft him that high. I thought he could develop in the right system and have a chance to be a good player.

None of the above happened. Pickett got drafted in the first round with all the expectations that come with that. Then Trubisky got all the significant snaps in camp, he was named the starter by Tomlin and was simultaneously the worst QB on the roster. Pickett was put in an impossible situation with Canada and thrown into the fire after four weeks into his rookie campaign because of the complete disaster that Trubisky was.

It was the perfect storm of how not to handle a young quarterback. Not Tomlin's finest moment or the Steelers' in general.

 

He developed players at other positions, but his risk-averse approach stifled Pickett. I'm not sure if he would have been able to stay healthy enough to figure it out anywhere, but he had no shot in Pittsburgh. You can't take away the middle if the field and tell a young quarterback not to take risks until the final minutes of a game or half and expect them to succeed.

 

By all accounts, Pickett was a late first/early second-round talent. He was badly mishandled, then injuries hit. This idea that he was some monstrous reach is laughable hindsight.

I say this as someone who wanted them to pass on all the quarterbacks and take Linderbaum.

 

This is funny stuff. He wasn't making the third round. He landed in a horrible situation, then the injuries hit, something that hadn't really been an issue at Pitt.

 

I just don't think he can stay healthy. Injuries sidelined his opportunity with the Eagles. They cost him his opportunity to start in Cleveland last year. He hasn't shown enough for teams to take the injury risk in counting on him as anything more than a backup.