Pittsburgh Steelers: Stephen A. Smith almost begging team not to play Kenny Pickett

The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line is the reason that rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett should stay on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, Stephen A. Smith has claimed.

The Pittsburgh Steelers as an offense are struggling right now. They rank 30th in terms of total yards and joint-30th when it comes to yards per play, with quarterback Mitch Trubisky, whilst being deemed the ‘safe’ option at quarterback, seemingly not being too eager to push the ball down the field. 

Trubisky came to the Steelers this past offseason as a free agent following his stint woth Buffalo Bills that came after his spell as the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Whilst with the Bears he managed to put up a record of 29-21, threw for 64 touchdowns against 37 interceptions and took them to the playoffs twice.

So it did make sense for him to be the next starting quarterback for the Steelers following the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, but when the team drafted Kenny Pickett in the first round of the NFL Draft in April, the whole dynamic changed. It then changed further after Pickett became arguably the biggest star of the preseason across the entire league. 

The stats from preseason tell you all you need to know about how close the battle was, with Pickett making a pretty clear case that he could and should be the man to lead the team in the future:

Mitch Trubisky's preseason: 24/34, 283 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, avg 8.3 yards per attemptKenny Pickett's preseason: 29/36 for 261 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, avg 7.3 yards per attempt

But it appears as though the quarterback isn’t the issue that’s holding the team back this season. That would be the offensive line, which came into the season ranked as one of the worst in the NFL and hasn’t done a