PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Heading into the final game of the regular season, how does quarterback Kenny Pickett feel like he’s performed?
“I like the way that I am trending,” Pickett said after winning the Joe Greene Great Performance Award on Wednesday. “I like the way that I'm improving and seeing things on field, taking what I'm seeing on tape and bringing it to the field and playing with a little bit more anticipation than I was earlier in the season.
He’s became the only rookie quarterback to lead his team back to win in the final minute in back-to-back weeks. Pickett said he was just lucky it fell in consecutive weeks. The big thing he says was just finding a way to win and has only one interception in his last seven games.
“I’m growing every week, that's the positive,” Pickett said. “There’re things that I'm learning from and there's things that are on tape now that I wasn't doing early in the season. So, I'm continuing to grow. It's not going to happen overnight.”
For the season Pickett has completed 64% of his passes for six touchdowns and nine interceptions with a 76.5 quarterback rating. He’s started 11 games and is 6-5, although one of the losses was the Baltimore game where he was injured in the first series.
“I don't think you're done getting better till you hang them up,” Pickett said. “So, I'm going to continue to improve every week, and just be the best player that I can be and try to get to that final result as fast as possible.”
Over the span of this season, was there a time when Pickett felt like he really got it?
“I can't say there was one particular moment,” Pickett said. “I can't say there was a specific moment, but I think just being consistent, I think that's what it's all about, being a professional. Coach Tomlin kind of leads the way with what I just said about being that same guy every single week during a long season, I think that's kind of where you can see if you're growing up or not.”
“I want to be that guy that these guys can rely on, and they know exactly what they're getting every day. So, I'm going to continue to work on that.”
The list of Joe Greene Great Performance Award winners (Steelers Rookie of the Year) includes Pro Football Hall of Famers, Steelers Hall of Honor members, Pro Bowlers and the last first-round quarterback.
“Huge honor, extremely grateful,” Pickett said. “I feel there is work still to do. I feel like I came in with an unbelievable rookie class and on an unbelievable team. I couldn’t have picked a better place to join. I’m extremely grateful for coaches and my teammates.”
Joe Greene Award standouts
Some of the winners of this award went on to great careers
· Alan Faneca
· Troy Polamalu
· Ben Roethlisberger
· Heath Miller
· Maurkice Pouncey
Some did not
· Anthony Henton
· Troy Edwards
· Daniel Sepulveda
· Patrick Bailey
· Mike Adams
· Sean Davis
‘The Chief’ Award winner
The Chief Award is presented yearly to the player that shows most cooperation with the media. The last two winners are Cameron Heyward and Ben Roethlisberger with James Farrior, Ryan Clark, Alan Faneca, Jerome Bettis, Merril Hoge and Tunch Ilkin previously honored. This year’s recipient is center Mason Cole.
Signing a three-year contract with the Steelers this offseason, Cole joked the questions have gotten easier since the team has won more in the second half.
“The first half didn’t go as we wanted,” Cole said. “It’s your guys job to ask the hard questions. It’s our job to answer it as best as we can. As things go well, I hope you ask the easy questions as well.”