Assessing Kenny Pickett’s charge

I wasn’t any more impressed than you probably were when I heard the Eagles had traded for quarterback Kenny Pickett, sending Pittsburgh pick 98 in the third round this year, along with a pair of seventh-rounders next year, the Eagles getting back pick 120 in the fourth round this year.

Pickett showed flashes of promise as a rookie but did not play well or stay healthy last season, and ended the year on the outs with head coach Mike Tomlin. The media in Pittsburgh have cast him as unwilling to compete for a job he hasn’t played nearly well enough to claim exclusively. (This view of Pickett might not be the objective truth, more on that later.)

Being something less than Pickett’s biggest booster did not, however, make me feel the need to rend the hem of my garment when the Steelers were able to replace Pickett with a different failed franchise QB prospect, Chicago’s Justin Fields, at what could turn out to be a lower price than the Eagles paid for Pickett.

I am not sure the Eagles ultimately would be better off with Fields, and I doubt that they could have gotten him for what Pittsburgh paid. I am pretty sure Fields would not have wanted to come here to back up Jalen Hurts. That was one question I had about Pickett, as well, but Pickett has laid it to rest — he made sure Monday that everyone knew he wants to be here.

Maybe I’m just not as big an expert on NFL quarterbacking as the folks who host and call into talk radio programs. I’m assuming they have all done deep film study analysis of Fields and Pickett, and also have reached out to their many contacts in NFL front offices to ascertain the circumstances surrounding each trade. So they therefore know Fields would have been the better choice, and more crucially, that he would have come here happily and been available to the Eagles for a sixth-round draft pick that will turn into a fourth if Fields takes 51 percent of the snaps in 2024.

Draftek.com’s trade value chart estimates the value of what the Eagles traded, minus the pick they received, to be equivalent to a mid-fourth-rounder. So if Fields doesn’t eventually become the Steelers starter over 34-year-old Russell Wilson, the Eagles paid more for Pickett. If Fields does become the starter — which I’m sure is his goal — they were traded for pretty much exactly the same thing.

Fields was the 11th overall pick in 2021, Pickett the 20th overall pick a year later. That means the Eagles have two seasons before Pickett costs them a lot of cap space, whereas if the Steelers want to hold onto Fields past 2024, they have to pick up a $25,664,000 option, or negotiate a new deal.

Last season, Pro Football Focus gave Pickett a 68.8 grade as a passer, to Fields’ 67.2. Fields received a slightly higher grade overall, because he is a much more accomplished runner. I once again feel compelled to point out that the Eagles employ A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert. Trust me on this, new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is not looking to build an attack based on the quarterback’s running ability.

With Pickett, there are competing narratives about what happened last season, when the Steelers fired their offensive coordinator, and Pickett eventually underwent “tightrope” surgery on his ailing right ankle. Tomlin did not return Pickett to his starting role when he came back, even though I’ve heard Pickett pushed his rehab under the premise that the team needed him back on the field.

This kind of stuff gets murky, and it happens all the time in the NFL. From the Steelers’ perspective, replacement Mason Rudolph was moving the ball better than Pickett had done. A radio talk show host (gee, they have those in Pittsburgh, too) said that Pickett refused to dress as a backup in Week 17. Pickett denied this.

On to the offseason, in which Pickett reportedly was told he would be given a chance to succeed, only for the Steelers to sign Wilson and promise him the starting job. At this point, Pickett wanted out of Pittsburgh; does that mean he didn’t want to compete, or that he had lost trust in management and the coaching staff? (Of course, we don’t know, objectively, what Pickett was promised.)

Anyhow, he’s here now, eager to learn under Moore and Nick Sirianni, Pickett having grown up as a fan of the Eagles in Ocean Township, N.J., thanks to a father from Philly.

“I just felt like it was time, from, you know, things that transpired,” Pickett said in a Monday news conference. He’d been asked why a career “reset” was necessary. “Wanted to get a chance to go somewhere else and continue to grow my career, and the fact that it’s in Philly … it’s an awesome opportunity, to join this team.”

Pickett didn’t say this, of course, but should Hurts go down, Pickett could be handed the keys to a much more potent offense than he ever commanded with the Steelers.

“it’s a crazy league, crazy business,” Pickett noted.

At the least, that could make him much more attractive on the trade market next year as someone’s potential starter.

The biggest knock on Pickett seems to be that he processes slowly. (But his 2.89-second average time to throw last season was quicker than Fields’ 3.23, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.) As a rookie, he excelled at making off-schedule plays, scrambling and then throwing downfield. (Hmm, who does that sound like?) PFF rated rookie Pickett third of 30 NFL QBs outside of the pocket, third of 44 when pressured.

Last year, he was accused of relying too much on the off-schedule stuff, baling out of clean pockets.

Is Pickett a better option than Fields? I don’t know if he’s a better QB, but I do think the situation is less fraught than it would be with Fields, who has a longer resume as a starter.

Bottom line: Whatever happens, we’re not going to see a Nick Folesian backup miracle again. Ever.