What does the Russell Wilson signing mean for Kenny Pickett?
During his end-of-season news conference, Head Coach Mike Tomlin sounded like he was going to give Kenny Pickett the ability to start in 2024.
Pickett lost his job to injury and after a few bad games by Mitch Trubisky, the Steelers turned to Mason Rudolph, who helped lead the Steelers into the playoffs.
Even though Pickett was healthy, the Steelers continued to ride Rudolph.
The national media certainly thinks Wilson is an upgrade over Pickett.
"This is Kenny Pickett we're talking about,” said Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s “First Take” Monday. “Anything is an upgrade with the quarterback situation the Steelers had last year."
Rich Eisen talked about it during his show Monday and he believes there will be a real competition between Wilson and Pickett.
Ask most fans and experts and they’ll tell you the “competition” will be a shame and that there is no way Wilson isn’t the starter at the beginning of the season.
But not Eisen.
“this is going to be a competition,” Eisen said while a member of his staff laughed out loud.
“Laugh all you want . . . it’s going to be a competition, the Russell Wilson of the first eight years of his career has not shown up on a football field for three years,” said Eisen. “The Pittsburgh Steelers know this.”
“They’re paying him 1.2 million dollars, they haven’t given up an ounce of draft capital to get him,” said Eisen. “They can easily tell him, here’s a clipboard, here’s an earbud.”
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93.7 The Fan Sports Director Jeff Hathhorn disagrees and says Pickett doesn’t have a future in Pittsburgh.
“You don’t bring in Russell Wilson to compete, to be the starting quarterback,” said Hathhorn. He comes in as the starting quarterback, period.”
Hathhorn says the number show Wilson had a good year last season. Pickett didn’t.
Hathhorn adds that the Kenny Pickett movie has turned into a horror film for him.