Steelers' Cam Heyward Visited GMFB With An Exclusive On Kenny Pickett's New Nickname From His Teammates

Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle and team captain, Cam Heyward recently appeared on an episode of Good Morning Football on NFL Network. He spoke about the Steelers' Week 1 matchup against the San Francisco 49ers and about the Steelers quarterback, Kenny Pickett. 

Heyward has been with the Steelers all 13 seasons of his professional career and like a fine wine, he has gotten better with age. He is currently poised to enter a competition with Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt to overtake Pittsburgh legend James Harrison as the all-time sack leader. 

This isn't surprising at all. Heyward is not just the backbone of the team, he is a major contributor to a powerful defense. A six-time Pro Bowler, Heyward's stats speak for themself heading into the 2023 season. He has 614 combined tackles, 115 for a loss, 176 quarterback hits, and 78.5 sacks. 

Heyward shares his team captain duties with three other players - one for each phase of the game. That includes Pickett who represents the offense. Pickett, who was a rookie in 2022, made a tremendous amount of improvement during his first season. 

Initially, Pickett was going to be the third-string backup to the newly signed veteran Mitch Trubisky and longtime backup Mason Rudolph. However, Pickett showed promise and when Trubisky was unable to get the offense going, he took over for him in the second half of Week 4. 

While Pickett and the rest of the team struggled during his first few games, they found their mojo after the bye week and closed out the season 7-2. Pickett himself had stats that reflected some of his struggles during the 13 games he played in. He completed 245 out of 389 attempted passes for a completion rating of 63%. He picked up 2,404 yards and seven touchdowns, but unfortunately, he also threw nine interceptions. This gave him a quarterback rating of 53.6. 

No one can dispute that Pickett showed growth during the second half of the 2022 season. But he did not stop there. He took that foundation and got together with his offensive teammates over the offseason and worked on building something remarkable. While it will be impossible to fully evaluate his evolution from 2022 to 2023 until the new season is well underway, the preseason showed tremendous progress. 

Pickett played some in all three preseason games heading into the 2023 season. He was named the top quarterback by Pro Football Focus for the entire NFL. Yes, it is just the preseason, but it still provides a peek into how much better synced this group is. The offense scored a touchdown on each one of the five drives Pickett led from under center, ending with a perfect passer rating of 158.3. 

It’s hard to have a better preseason than Pickett did to begin his first full season as the Steelers' starting quarterback. His 94.7 PFF grade led all quarterbacks. The team couldn't have asked for more than that. Now Heyward is singing his praises and revealing his new nickname.

Steelers' Cam Heyward Drops The Dime On Pickett's New Nickname

While chatting with the hosts of GMFB, Heyward was asked about Pickett. Co-host Peter Schrager, mentioned that he recently did a breakout players list and he mentioned that at the top of his list was Pickett. Schrager asked Heyward what he sees on a day-to-day basis, and what is different since the start of the 2022 season. 

"Well, you know with Kenny, now we call him 'Big Ken,'" laughs Heyward. "He's just grown into that position. I feel like last year was just the tip of the iceberg, learning things on the fly, getting to learn your receivers, and just understanding the NFL game. This year, I feel like he's a lot more comfortable, he's got a lot more parts around him whether it's Diontae Johnson, George Pickens, Pat Freiermuth, Najee Harris, and then the O-Line is just built up a lot better this year."

Schrager can't resist, he asks Heyward if the nickname "Big Ken" is a reference to Barbie's boyfriend, Ken. This made Heyward chuckle and say that Pickett does bring that "Ken energy."  

GMFB co-host Kyle Brandt announces that they are excited that Heyward will be joining them on the show for a weekly segment during the 2023 season to talk about how things are going with Pickett and the rest of the team. Heyward and most of Steeler Nation seem to believe that the good reports about Pickett will just continue to come. 

This should be validating for Pickett as he took a lot of criticism from analysts when he entered the NFL Draft in 2022. They said his hands were too small, he wasn't accurate enough, he took sacks too often, and didn't have great timing. There were many critics who felt like he went way too early in the draft process. But Pickett has used that to fuel his continued improvement. The Steelers saw something in him and they are doing all they can to help support the process. 

"They're setting this guy up for success. He's gonna have a chance to prove it," said Heyward.

Pickett is going to have a big challenge with his first NFL Week 1 game. The 49ers have a powerhouse defense and Pickett is going to have to show that he can remain calm and poised, like he has in the past, under this kind of pressure. The 49ers won't give him long to throw the ball so the offensive line will also be put to the test. 

What do you think about Pickett's improvement from 2022 to the start of 2023? Has he earned the nickname "Big Ken?" Click to comment below. 

#SteelerNation