Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic Over Pickett

2020

Looking back, the 2020 quarterback class is highlighted by some high-level players, but most of them had innocent starts to their NFL careers. 

The first quarterback off the board was Joe Burrow to Cincinnati. Steeler fans know how that one panned out. Burrow opened the season as the Bengals starter on a roster that didn’t have a lot of talent. He went 2-7-1 as a starter before a devastating knee injury knocked him out for the year. In year two he came back healthy and took the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance. 

The next QB taken was Tua Tagovailoa to the Dolphins. Tua opened the season behind veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick, eventually taking the starting job and going a respectable 6-3. Still though, the jury is still out on Tua. Despite the praises that Tyreek Hill is singing, we have yet to see Tua put it together for a full season. 

With the very next pick the Chargers took Justin Herbert. He, along with Burrow, have become two of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL, but even Herbert didn’t start right away. Initially, he was behind Tyrod Taylor. Herbert only started after a mess that saw Tyrod Taylor miss games with a punctured lung suffered pregame. Herbert took the reins and hasn’t let go since. 

It took 20 picks for the next QB to be drafted, but the Packers ended up taking Jordan Love with the 26th pick in the draft as their future. To this day Love hasn’t seen much action. The Packers have had Love sit behind Aaron Rodgers for the first two seasons of his career. He’s appeared in 6 games total and only started one due to Aaron Rodgers getting covid. With Aaron Rodgers still playing like one of the best, who knows if all this watching is good for Love’s development, only time will tell. 

The next quarterback from this class is the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts. When he was drafted to the Eagles people still believed in Carson Wentz, so they were slightly confused with the pick. That year Hurst played in 15 games, often being used as a gadget player. He did end up starting four games that season as the primary QB. After the season the Eagles moved on from Wentz, dealing him to the Colts. Hurts then became the primary starter this past season, leading the Eagles to a winning record and a playoff berth.

2019

2019 wasn’t the strongest quarterback class, but it's still worth seeing how they fared in their first seasons. 

Kyler Murray was the top pick in this draft., going to the Cardinals. In his rookie year, he started every game for Arizona, going 5-10-1, with one of those losses being to Duck Hodges (we still remember that one Kyler). Since then he has shown some steady improvement, leading the Cardinals to a playoff berth last season. 

The next QB taken was Daniel Jones going to the Giants with the sixth overall pick. Since being drafted Jones has been the starter for the majority of the games the Giants have played, yet he hasn’t played a full season in any of his three years. He hasn’t won more than 5 games in a season, but it is hard to determine whether that is on him or not as the Giants haven’t had a lot of talent in those three years. 

After Jones, the next quarterback selected was Dwayne Haskins to Washington. Most fans are familiar with his story but after a rough start in Washington that saw him go 3-10 as a starter, he was released. He signed with the Steelers and was going to be given an opportunity to compete for the starting job this year before his untimely passing. 

The only other quarterback taken early in this draft was Drew Lock to the Broncos. Lock sat for the majority of his rookie season behind Joe Flacco, but was given his chance towards the end of the season. He went 4-1 as a starter, earning him some hype for the next season. He was named the starter but things fell apart and he finished with a 4-9 record. Last season he only started 3 games for the Broncos, losing all 3 of them. He was then traded to Seattle in the Russell Wilson deal and is now competing with Geno Smith for their starting job. 

Conclusion

Over the past three drafts, there have been all kinds of different approaches to how teams manage their rookie signal callers. Some were thrown out there and flourished. Some were thrown out there and injured. Some started strong and fell off, some started slow and got better. Some haven’t even been given a chance to start yet. 

What should be clear by now is that there is no clear-cut right way to handle this situation for Tomlin and the Steelers. It took Tyrod Taylor being stabbed in the lung for Herbert to start, it took until the end of the preseason for Mac Jones to beat Cam Newton, and it took an entire year behind Jimmy G for Trey Lance to become the starter. 

So give things some time. One way or another it’ll work out for Kenny Pickett in Pittsburgh.