Kenny Pickett: Looking back to the incredible dummy he pulled off in college

One play from Kenny Pickett’s career at the University of Pittsburgh could well be an indicator of the kind of player he will be at the NFL level. 

Today marks the 24th birthday of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett, the player who was taken with the #20 pick in the NFL Draft back in April, in what might go down as one of the all-time great moves, or one of the all-time blunders.

Coming into the draft, the quarterback class wasn’t exactly getting praised in the way the class of 1983 with John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly up for selection, or indeed 2004 which saw Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger all selected inside the top 11 picks.

With the next quarterback not going until selection 74, that being Desmond Ridder to the Atlanta Falcons, it means that either the Steelers thought way too highly of him, or the rest of the league thought way to lowly of the rest of the class.

Whilst this year’s group might not, at least on paper, be the highest quality when it comes to their NFL futures, looking at Pickett’s numbers, it wasn’t as if he had a particularly bad final year in college, and it makes sense why the Steelers took him to be the heir-apparent to Roethlisberger.

He was named a first-team All-American, finished 3rd in last year’s Heisman trophy standings, and put up over 4,300 yards whilst throwing for 42 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions. 

What are the @Steelers getting?

Enjoy some highlights from Kenny Pickett's historic 2021 regular season at Pitt