While his stats didn’t jump off the page in Monday night’s win against the Indianapolis Colts, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett had his best game yet.
Pickett went 20-for-28 and even though he didn’t have any passing touchdowns, he also didn’t have any interceptions for the third straight game.
Pickett told reporters that he called the play that led to the game winning touchdown run from Benny Snell Jr.
While Pickett doesn’t have the strongest arm, size or physical qualities of a superstar quarterback, his awareness and the ability to make players around him better can take him a long way.
"What I love about Kenny Pickett is that he learns,” said Chris Hoke on Cooke & Joe Thursday. “Very rarely does he make the same mistake over and over again.
That's why I really think he has a high ceiling. We're watching him grow before our eyes."
Pickett is starting to play like a first round selection and while it’s way, way too early to predict, just because he doesn’t have the size and skill doesn’t mean he can’t someday be a Hall of Fame QB.
Someone from western Pennsylvania, who like Pickett didn’t have the all the tangible qualities of a superstar quarterback, was still able to win four Super Bowls and got himself a gold jacket.
Former NFL General Manager Doug Whaley told the Fan Morning Show who that person is.
“I don’t know if he’ll ever be this guy, and I’m not comparing him to this guy,” said Whaley. “There’s a guy that had a Hall of Fame career that didn’t have superior physical skills, but had that quarterback acumen that we’re talking about now, Joe Montana. Joe Montana did not have an arm, he was athletic but wasn’t super athletic that you were worked about him breaking the pocket . . . his arm was good but his accuracy was great and his leadership and knowing how to play that position.”
To be clear, Whaley isn’t comparing Montana to Pickett, but even without superior skills and talent, a QB can go far in the NFL and Pickett is starting to slow glimmers of the kind of leader he can be for the Steelers.