The Pittsburgh Steelers haven't given too much of a run to the first-team offense so far through two preseason games and it's largely because of how they've been able to execute in their limited time. Kenny Pickett in three drives against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Buffalo Bills has completed 9 of 11 pass attempts for 113 yards and a pair of scores. His impressive play in the exhibition games has former NFL quarterback turned NBC analyst Chris Simms gushing that the second-year signal-caller has been the best of the starting quarterbacks in preseason play so far.
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Steelers quarterback, Kenny Pickett (#8) throws a deep ball down the sidelines while warming up for a 2022 matchup.
During the most recent episode of his podcast Unbuttoned with co-host Ahmed Fareed, Simms broke down what he saw in all the preseason Week 2 games and zeroed in on why he's been so impressed with Pickett's ability so far in 2023. Earlier in the offseason, Pickett was ranked by Simms as the 25th best quarterback on his annual quarterback rankings list. Some of the things the former Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans and Denver Broncos quarterback pointed to as areas for improvement, he's already seen through two preseason games.
"Great decisions, accurate throws, movement, and aggressive throws," he listed as some of the positives he's seen from Pickett. "It's not like he's throwing check down Charlie four-yard completions and we're going 'Oh look at his quarterback rating.' No."
Simms highlighted Pickett's 25-yard touchdown throw to tight end Pat Freiermuth against the Bills, after the long punt return by Calvin Austin III as an example of the improvement the young quarterback has made. Pickett made an aggressive decision to fit the ball into a tight area over the head of the linebacker Matt Milano and hit Freiermuth perfectly before Bills safety Jordan Poyer came over and knocked the big tight end down into the end zone.
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Steelers’ Pat Freiermuth celebrates his touchdown catch against the Buffalo Bills during the 2023 preseason.
Simms said that in 2022, he saw enough from Pickett to be sure that he could run the offense, but questioned if he could do anything special. Plays like the one to Freiermuth against the Bills and the 33-yard touchdown throw to George Pickens are exactly the type of special plays that Simms was looking for.
Steelers Preseason Has Simms Buying Stock
Simms said that before the preseason started, he was not comfortable naming Pittsburgh as one of his playoff teams for the 2023 season. He said he knew that they would be competitive because Head Coach Mike Tomlin would make sure of it, but he wasn't confident that they'd be a lock for the postseason.
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Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin yells emphatically on the field during the team's 2022 training camp.
He elaborated that often when he's watching the exhibition games, he'll see a team that looks good and different from the year before, but doesn't want to put too much faith in them because it's still preseason football. He added that sometimes that team carries the momentum into the season and by around Week 8, he wonders why he didn't commit to jumping on the bandwagon.
He stopped short of buying a ticket to jump on the Steeler Nation bus, but said that he's very encouraged by what the team is doing on both sides of the ball. He expanded that the first-team defense hasn't been on the field much in preseason, though guys like TJ Watt, Cam Heyward, and Alex Highsmith did get some playing time against the Bills' offensive starters and made them look bad.
If they can carry the momentum from some very good exhibition play into the regular season, there's certainly good reason to believe this team can be playing postseason games in the 2023 season. There's certainly danger in basing too much on preseason play, but when the first-team offense has a showing like they did against a Bills defense with most of their starters playing, it's a positive sign. Add in that the defense bottled up the Bills' first-team offense after getting blown out by them in 2022, you can't help but be optimistic.
Do you think Pickett has shown he can be special this preseason? Do you have Pittsburgh as a playoff team in 2023? Comment below!
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