What letter grade would you give The Steelers in Drafting Kenny Pickett?

[lambert5874]

I think an A+ he's the most ready for the NFL

[bbbooger]

F! ... okay... D-... career back-up that does nothing to close the gap versus the other teams in the division. Hate the pick... Ugh!

[Cali-Steeler]

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[RaynorShyne]

Agreed. Rudolph is going to need to fight like hell to keep #3

Picket is certainly going to have hometown charm. The question will be how well he, or Trubisky, work in Canada's offense. Get ready for a TON of QB/option sweeps....

[mcmillenandwife]

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[bbbooger]

I have NEVER hated a Steelers 1st round pick more… Ugh…!!

[Chucktownsteeler]

Hope I’m wrong but he reminds me of Matt Hasselback 2.0.

[sandfan]

The rest of the league had a completely different opinion on the QB class. Hindsight suggests Picket would have been available in round 3. They would have likely been better served selecting a position player in round 1. I can't see Picket having a career even close to Ben's. Hope I'm wrong.

[mcmillenandwife]

I am a little surprised by it, but I don't really have a "strong" opinion one way or the other. QB seems to be the most difficult position to predict a successful transition from college to pro. Highly unlikely he would've still been there by our second pick. We need a third QB with the tragic death of Dwayne Haskins. 

Personally, I don't view the pick as a huge stretch and I think he's worth the gamble.

[dbsfgyd1]

Agreed.  Rudolph is going to need to fight like hell to keep #3

Picket is certainly going to have hometown charm.   The question will be how well he, or Trubisky, work in Canada's offense.   Get ready for a TON of QB/option sweeps....

Just what specifically is “Canada’s offense”? And why is there so much confidence he is going to be the next Bill Walsh? I don’t get it. Surely you can’t base it on his professional career in the pros. Further, even if you want admire his rather mediocre college career, how many successful OC’s started their pro career directly from college to an OC position? Like I said, I just don’t get it.

I have my doubts:

1) Each game last season he opened with 31 scripted plays. Based on how many offensive snaps in a game these plays likely took up the entire first half, in some cases.spilled into the 3rd quarter. These hand picked plays, presumably, the best in his arsenal put together to attack opposing team weaknesses netted a whopping less than 7 points per first half, next to the lowest 1st half scoring in the league.

 2) Of course the oline and Ben was at fault for that. Right? Funny thing when you look the second half production. With the same linemen, the same decrepit aging QB, the Steelers were 5th in second half scoring. Humm….Even if you discount the scoring in garbage time in 2 or 3 games, you still can’t discount the disparity in production without the finger being printed directly at the OC.

3) Horizontal offense. From what I’ve seen so far, this offense is the antithesis of a vertical offense. No wonder the defense was being overrun, heck, the entire defense could play downhill. Oh the was because Ben was immobile, no arm left. Right? Well because of those defender playing downhill there was a donut hole in the middle of defenses about 10-15 yards downfield, and largely ignored all season long. So how many times on 3rd and long did we see Ben throw the ball to a WR outside the numbers on a rope? According to my calculations, that is the same distance as it would be to place the ball in that donut hole. Ben wouldn’t have Harv to hit the 40 yard bombs, just deep enough to make those interior linebacker play pass coverage instead of crashing the LOS. The side benefit is those successful (Najee averaged 4.8 ypc)  inside zone would have been a lot more successful as 3.3 of those 4.8 yards per carry were yards gained after first contact.


So here is my hope for this year. First of all, Colbert had a great off season to wrap up his career. Canada now has he tools to do the job. The OL on paper looks greatly improved. The Steelers has been missing a legitimate deep receiving threat since Bryant. Now we have two of them, and Claypool and Johnson ain’t it. All it will take is about 3 deep completed passes, and the wat the Steelers are defended will change overnight. If those rookies can run those deeper route taking 3 or 4 defenders with them, this offense of sound running, and low risk passing can be highly productive.

My only concern is Canada insisting on running those scripted plays which has lead me to two conclusions. Either those plays totaly suck and he had real idea how to put together a good offensive system, or he’s the worst play caller in th NFL.

The defense should revert to form with new additions, the return of Alualu. That and better first half TOP will be a huge plus.

[Chucktownsteeler]

I have no faith in Matt Canada. A college offense won't work in the NFL. Everyone on an NFL defense is fast.

[bbbooger]

I have no faith in Matt Canada. A college offense won't work in the NFL. Everyone on an NFL defense is fast.

Precisely what I've been saying since game 4 last year.  Canada runs a second-rate ACC offense, one that works when your guys are bigger, stronger, and faster than the opponent's... but you don't get to schedule Coastal Carolina in the NFL...

[Rollers]

As long as we have Canada calling the plays we will not win much of anything. He's a bust.

[mcmillenandwife]

Just what specifically is “Canada’s offense”? 

Man, THAT really IS the question, isn't it? WTF is it??? 

[Cali-Steeler]

Matt Canada -  

   Either the front office knows what their doing  "By not releasing him" last season.

   Or this season we're going to find out how dumb our front office, coach is....