Can Kenny Cook?
After the nonsense of “Mojo-gate” and questions about sitting on an airplane for eight hours sucked most of the oxygen out of the room, the most interesting under-the-radar issue from Mike Tomlin’s Tuesday press conference ended up gaining some traction yesterday, as Kenny Pickett was asked about his freedom to check out of plays and audible at the line of scrimmage.
You can fast forward in that video above to around the 6:00-minute mark, but Pickett seemed to echo what his head coach said on Tuesday: His ability, or at least his menu of options on when to check and what to audible to, seems to be very limited and based on the opponent and the gameplan week-to-week.
Which leads to one of my biggest concerns about Pickett: Is his processing speed -both pre-snap and post-snap- fast enough?
We see Pickett dart out of the pocket way too early sometimes. We seem him miss open receivers sometimes. His post-snap processing is a concern. That’s something that I know his personal quarterbacking coach, Tony Racioppi, has worked on with him during the offseason.
Pre-snap is something that can be worked on even more in-season though. By giving Pickett a handful of plays he can check in to when the defense seems prepared for the call in the huddle, he can assess, based on one or two pre-snap reads, whether he should stay in that play, or check to something that won’t result in, for example, his running back getting swarmed two yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Or maybe he can’t make that assessment?
Far be it from me to suggest Pickett can’t mentally handle the task of reading a defense and not just assessing whether the play call has a decent chance of success or not, but whether a check may be successful or not as well, but… maybe he can’t?
Again, every time Pickett’s abilities are questioned it elicits an overly outsized reaction from fans who have been invested in him for more than just his 17 months as a Steeler. Those questions aren’t meant to denigrate Pickett though. They’re the same questions we’d be asking of Malik Willis, or Desmond Ridder, or Sam Howell, or any other QB who may have been taken in the 2021 draft and handed the keys to the Steelers’ offense.
And moreover, they’re exceedingly fair questions to ask.
Are Tomlin and Matt Canada not giving Pickett the freedom to check out of some situations? Perhaps. And maybe it’s for a good reason.
Finger-Lickin’ Good
There are few things more appetizing to a premier edge rusher than the sight of a backup offensive tackle in a game.
So how about a third-string offensive tackle??
Houston’s top three tackles, Laremy Tunsil, George Fant, and Josh Jones- all missed practice yesterday. Which meant Austin Deculus, a 6th Round pick in 2022 out of LSU who has yet to play a single offensive snap in the NFL, was practicing at left tackle for the Texans.
Preseason Big Three + Karlsson
This is it.
Tonight, the Penguins host the Buffalo Sabres at PPG Paints Arena in what will be the first appearance of Erik Karlsson as a Pittsburgh Penguin outside of practice. It appears Marcus Pettersson will be his defensive partner.
It will also be the preseason debut for new Penguins Reilly Smith and Lars Eller.
And some guys named Crosby, Malkin, and Letang will be out there as well.
The game will be aired on KDKA+, with faceoff just after 7pm.
Pirates Preparing For ‘24
Down to their final week of the season, you could forgive a relatively young Pirates team if their endurance has waned a bit.
It seemingly hasn’t though, a blown 5-0 lead in Philly last night aside.
The loss to the Phillies grew their losing streak to three games, which is their first such losing streak since mid-July.
It’s not fashionable to point out, but since July 18th in fact, the Pirates have been 33-30. That’s good for the 7th-best record in the National League.
It’s not lighting the world on fire, but over the course of a 162-game season it’s an 85-77 pace, which would be good enough for the NL’s 2nd Wild Card.
Add a healthy Oneil Cruz to the lineup, bring back an Andrew McCutchen -maybe even a Carlos Santana?- and sprinkle some Paul Skenes on top, and you don’t have to squint too hard to see a team that battles for a postseason spot in 2024.