Honestly who cares about Howard or Allar right now?

They tried to help him by making it simple for him. So that he could learn to do the simple things. Then grow to do more complicated things.

But so many years and teams later, that growth hasn't happened.

It's not because he didn't get enough work with the starters in his first camp or whatever.

It's because he didn't do enough with the smaller responsibilities he had. He got hurt frequently. Then outplayed by the QB3 (Mason). So he got benched. Then he asked to leave when we signed Wilson, because it was obvious that he wasn't going to be the starter...IMO, he would have lost the competition if we didn't bring in Wilson and it was him and Mason. But we only saw Mason beat out Kenny once. It might not have happened again.

We did the same thing with Ben when he started. Very limited number of pass attempts. Half-field reads to make it easier for him. But he crushed it, so he got more responsibilities.

Cowher didn't hold Ben back by simplifying the offense for him. He allowed Ben to earn more responsibilities.

The opposite of this approach is what Chicago with with Fields. Forced him to try to be superman all the time. Which led to an enormous number of turnovers (and turnover worthy plays) and a pretty terrible W/L record.

That kind of horrible performance just wouldn't be accepted in Pittsburgh. Not by the fans or by the ownership IMO. Especially over long periods of time.

 

Much depends on where the Steelers stand in terms of post season and whether the young QBs look good enough to maintain

Agree with last paragraph

 

Kenny Pickett had Matt Canada as his offensive coordinator.

They failed him.

It doesn't mean that he would have become a great quarterback if everything was done perfectly. It means that he had no chance to develop in that pathetic offense and with the coaching that he received....or lack thereof.

Matt Canada wouldn't even talk to Pickett directly. They say that was just how he works. An offensive coordinator that won't talk to the quarterback? WTF???

The current head coach Mike McCarthy is working directly with the quarterbacks on everything from footwork, to fundamentals, to all the aspects of playing the position. That is a huge upgrade in coaching the position.

 

The coaching fails seem to follow KP around wherever he goes.

 

Matt Canada was not an NFL-level coach....period. You can't expect any quarterback to play well in a bad offense with horrible coaching, let alone a rookie thrown into it to learn and develop while the moron wouldn't work directly with the quarterback.

It is the definition of failing a young quarterback.

 

Well that same offensive help tricked many people into believing Fields had turned the corner, and low , and behold as soon as he left that so called terrible coaching he lost his job . Again.
Did anyone watch him in KC this preseason?? They couldn't score with him on the field.

 

And again that same approach tricked media, and many people on here into believing Fields had gotten better. They are lying if they say it didn't. How many people on here swore we should have kept Fields because he was now showing what he could be, and now those same people are saying the offense didn't help them. LoL
Make that make sense.

 

If Fields got better, my guess is that it would be about him becoming "wiser"...learning that he has limitations on what he can do and where they are. Maybe seeing that the team can win without him trying to win the game on every play (and eventually throwing...or more accurately in his case fumbling...the game away).

 

That could be it or good coaches make the processing simpler for guys. You can`t dumb it down so much that your offense becomes predictable to the extent the defense just tees off on your qb. There still has to be an element of illusion and surprise or you don’t keep the defense honest. I feel like we didn’t do that the last five years.

 

I get this argument.

And it might even be correct.

And I'd probably even believe it if Kenny had more success when playing for the Eagles, Browns, or Raiders than he had with us. Instead the QB3 in all of those systems looked at least as good as Kenny did. Just like how Mason looked at least as good as Kenny when they were here.

I didn't watch him much after he left here. But it seems reasonable to say that he had his best performance when he was with us. Although his stat line across his time in PHI looks good (small sample). He did crush his TD% in PHI (4.8% vs. the ~ 1.85% with us)...but it was also only 42 pass attempts.

It's possible that Kenny lights it up when he plays for the Panthers. Then the argument that it was the Steelers, Eagles, Browns, and Raiders failed Kenny will make more sense.

But with the information we have right now, I think it's much easier to believe that Kenny just isn't all that good. And that he's unlikely to be significantly better than an average QB3 in the league.

Which makes me wrong. Because when he left, I said many times that I thought he'd end up being at least an average back up. And probably an above average backup. Again...so far, the data suggests that prediction was incorrect.

I'll be happy to update my opinion of Kenny again if his play for the Panthers is at least solid-backup level. And he might get a chance to play out there too. It's not like Young's been out there lighting it up.

 

I thought I read somewhere he requested to be traded from Philly. I remember when he didn’t deal with his dr,Orion here very well. He seems way too temperamental to be playing QB. Maybe he should bulk up and switch positions to Ilb.

 

It's possible.

I thought his story with PHI was similar to the end of his story here with us.

Played OK as backup.

Got hurt...don't know if it was spinning right into a DL.

QB3 came in and played at least as well as he did.

QB3 probably became QB2.

Kenny asked to be traded.

I think that QB was Tanner McKee. Who I think was their QB2 last season (after Kenny left). But is now listed as their QB3 behind Jalen Hurts and Andy "**** it, if Flacco is still playing I can play too" Dalton.

 

At any rate it was a reach as a draft pick.

 

Probably not a terrible bet because when you don't have a QB you should try to get a QB.

But there's a reason he fell...even though he was still the first QB off the board.

Obviously didn't work out.

I think we had the wrong mindset going into that draft (Colbert's last even though I think it was already announced he was leaving). I think we were going to pick a QB come hell or high water. In a draft that was among the worst in recent memory.

 

Colberts last five drafts weren’t that great with the exception of Watt and Juju. We were trying to stay relevant with Ben and the. We tried to replace Ben. All outside factors that influenced poor decisions.

 

They failed each other. A meh-armed QB whose strong point was the 5 yard out. An OC that forgot there is more than curls and outs for receivers.

 

This is probably one of those things where not thowing it was probably the right decision...and he looks absolutely hilarious doing it.

I appreciate the laugh I got out of this.

And he probably didn't hurt himself on this play (although maybe?). So that's a positive for KP.

 

Fields has demonstrated pretty clearly that he gives the ball to the other team very frequently (I think the highest turnover worthy play rate of any QB since he entered the league? At least when we picked him up from CHI) when the offense plan is to "let him sling it".

He's a guy where the strict discipline of a controlled offense is likely to really help him.

Like Ben, he's a very high variance player...without the massive upside of early career Ben.

I think the best way to handle guys like that is to limit what you ask them to do. Because if you keep rolling the dice, you'll lose more than you win.

So you want him on a manageable cap hit so you can build a D around him.

Then you manage his risk early in games. Keep it close. And hope that the low number of times you roll the dice toward throughout the game gives you a good "sequence of returns" so you win more than you lose.

If you have him throwing a lot, he's going to turn it over. Especially if you're asking him to consistently play out of structure, where Fields is very, very fumble prone.

All that said, I wanted us to go back to him at the end of that season. I think after the fumble in Baltimore, Wilson was done. By the time we were in the last couple regular season games, I wanted us to sit Wilson and play Fields. Because at least he has an elite trait that would make teams worry...and maybe give us a chance at explosive plays. But the Steelers (Tomlin + Rooney) aren't really about risks like that.

I also wanted us to bring Fields back. But not for what he eventually got paid. I don't think I was upset about the Rodgers signing...but I don't remember being excited about it either. I wanted us to at least think a little bit about the medium term (which Fields could have been).