Following last Sunday’s 35-13 loss in Philadelphia, Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett raised some eyebrows with an open criticism of the team’s lack of studying.
On Wednesday, Pickett didn’t exactly back off that sentiment.
“If you need more, get more,” said Pickett. “That's pretty much the message. The coaches are always here. Anything I need, the coaches doors are always open, so that's just the easy message.
“I think guys have been great. We’ve had really clean days of practice and we just need to carry that over into the game.”
That ‘game’ is Sunday, when Pittsburgh hosts New Orleans in a game that could go a long way in deciding if, at 2-6, the back half of this season will be one with something to play for, or one that could potentially head into the tank for the Steelers.
“You can't press as a player, as coaches, all of us,” Pickett said. “We’ve just got to trust that everyone's doing their job, we’re going to go out there and executing and improving the little detail things that we want to improve on and kind of just take it one step at a time.
“But it all starts on Sunday. The things that we're putting in and everything we're working on, we got to execute at a high level on Sunday.”
The Steelers head into the game off of the bye week, which perhaps couldn’t have come at a better time for the team.
“We've been going at it for a while, going back to camp, so it was good to get a break and get away and everyone came back pretty refreshed,” said Pickett.
That’s not to say that he wasn’t still working. Pickett took a deeper look at his play, and feels like stepping back for a bit could be extremely beneficial.
“I definitely found things with (Quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan), things that I want to improve on,” he said. “Just mastering the offense as a whole, using the entire offense, ways for us to get down the field more and be more explosive, which I can definitely help with. So there's a lot of things. It was definitely a productive off week.”
Where Pickett needs to improve most is ball security. He’s thrown eight interceptions and just two touchdowns so far this year. Despite the issues, Pickett feels he has been able to learn quickly from the mistakes.
“I’ve got to protect the ball more, absolutely,” he said. “But I’m not throwing picks where I'm not seeing the coverage. I see what's going on and, whether it's a tipped ball, or a few that they got me on, I'm processing and I'm going to the sideline. I know exactly what happened, why I went there.
“So there's things I can build on. But the bottom line is I’ve got to protect the football. That's definitely something that this back half of the season needs to be a focus for me.”
There has been plenty working against the rookie. A lack of explosive plays, a malfunctioning run game, the trade of one of his top targets in Chase Claypool, massive questions about play calling from offensive coordinator… it’s all piled up into making the Steelers one of the NFL’s worst offensive teams.
But the bye week was a chance to reflect, and a chance to get things righted. The schedule, for Pittsburgh, becomes significantly lighter in the back half, and Pickett will see defenses that have struggled greatly so far.
So he is, without question, optimistic about the remainder of his rookie season
“I mean, listen, we'll find out on Sunday, right,” he said. “We can go over all the things and it sounds great on paper and in the meetings. We’ve got to go out there and produce on Sunday.”