PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It's simple from Mike Tomlin's standpoint why they traded Kenny Pickett. He asked for it.
"Yeah, you know, in the days following our acquisition, (of) Russell (Wilson), Kenny expressed a desire for a change of scenery," Tomlin said Monday at the NFL owners' meetings.
Maybe initially it was a tactic by the Pickett camp, but as Tomlin has said about other situations, they want volunteers, not hostages. The guy Tomlin wanted to work with and praised for being a winner, saying their jobs are to win and that's how they are measured. They shipped away, quickly.
If winning is how quarterbacks are measured, then they went from a quarterback that went 3-0 to end the season, Mason Rudolph and a third-year QB with cost control with a winning record, Pickett, for one that's gone 11-19 over the last two seasons.
Then after they traded Pickett, they made another trade.
"Then the dominoes started to fall, and we did the transactions necessary to kind of send Kenny to Philly and acquire Justin (Fields)," Tomlin said. "We're excited about the guys that we have. Russell and Justin, man, and just really can't wait to get started."
But Tomlin didn't just get one quarterback with a losing record in the last three seasons, but two. If you judge Justin Fields by how quarterbacks are measured, he only had 10 wins in 38 starts.
"He's worn the responsibility of being a franchise quarterback but still he gets an opportunity to come into a community like situation and learn from the guy that's been doing it for over a decade," Tomlin said. "Man, there's a lot of meat left on that bone. I'm just excited about working to be a part of the extracted."
Sometimes coaches will say anything to justify their actions. It's not to say winning isn't important, but what Tomlin just couldn't say is they needed to improve at that position. Nor would he take responsibility for the failures of the coaching staff to help make Pickett and the offense better.
The words that do resonate from Tomlin recently are the ones of compassion.
"I saw nothing but professional effort," Tomlin said of Pickett. "He's a heck of a dude. They're getting a really good guy."
And the Steelers are getting a few quarterbacks that have struggled to win recently, but we all knew it was more than that.
